Tonight Sanderson is working on building our first prototype wooden seat with a folding back. At the beginning of this project I was doubtful that a sturdy and attractive chair for white water could look traditional and be strong enough to take the everyday abuse. One of our custom boat clients did some research for me that was a great inspiration (Thank you Hans and Mihkel) and now I’m very excited about what we have come up with.

Here are the first drawings. Sandy and I had a few particular ideas to start with.

1. Make it as traditional as possible. So we started with a rope rower’s seat.
2. Make the back folding. A framed boat requires that you step over the thwart seats and folding chair        backs  makes the job much easier.
3. Strong, strong , strong and stronger.
4. Light weight, which is often the opposite of #3.
5. Be able to sit on the chair with the back folded down. We don’t recommend this is the best way to use the seat but it has to be able to withstand the weight of a person sitting on it when closed.

So, today the cut files were put on our CNC and Sanderson is busy gluing together the first prototype. We’ve already found a few changes to improve the this original design but overall I’m very pleased with the first attempt.

Photos of the real thing soon.