Canoe with a View : : Canadian Open Canoe forum

I'm likely to be doing a fair bit of solo paddling in the future so I really need to install a kneeling thwart in the Pelican. Unfortunately the design of the gunwhales means that I can't fit normal hangers and I need to design something myself. Does anyone know what angle kneeling thwarts are generally set at (if there is one)? If you buy a kit it comes with wooden hangers cut at an angle so I assume these are normally cut at a particular angle.
Any tips or advice folks

Cheers

Chris

this is the size of my kneeling thwart when bought
these measurements produce an angle of 16 Degrees

Hi Chris

You can use a standard kit, you just need some extra bolts to bolt the hangers to the side of the boat instead of using the gunwales as normal.

On my old Coleman RamX 15 it just had two bits of wood bolted through the hull with a kneeling thwart on top, never leaked either

Thanks for that Graeme. That helps a lot. I had thought about bolting the hangers to the side of the boat but wasn't sure it would work. Sounds like that's the way to go.

No prob Chris

As long as you make sure that the kneeling thwart is the full width of the boat so it is a tight fit that method works well

You can also bolt a couple of pieces of wood to the inside gunwale and then use the standard hangers as normal, this is probably a safer way as you can get a better weight bearing by getting a wider fixing on the wood on the gunwales, the standard bolts that come with the kits should be long enough to do this as you normally have to cut down the hangers to length.

That sounds like a good idea. I've got a nice piece of timber that I can use for the thwart. Using the diagram that BB has put on I should be able to make the hangers from the offcuts. Thanks for the help folks.

Oh yeah. I take it positioning is a case of clamping it in place and keep trying it on the water until it floats right?

(25-11-09 07:49 PM)chrisj Wrote: [ -> ]Oh yeah. I take it positioning is a case of clamping it in place and keep trying it on the water until it floats right?

Normally 16-18" back from the yoke, making sure you have enough room to get in and out of it easily

Thanks. I might still fix it temporary and try it but that gives me a starting point. Once the weather cheers up I can get stuck in. I'll let you know when it's done.

Cheers

Chris