Hi
I have already been paddling C1 for quite a while now in my Bliss-stick slick-stick, but my home made snow sleigh saddle is absolute poo and constantly flexes and moves.
Has anyone ever converted a Bliss-Stick boat, or any boat without foam pillars before?
If so, what approach did you take?
I already have some ideas of my own, but would love to hear any advice that anyone else has to offer.
I've never liked a foam seat's instability, so I make my own butt-bucket. The one shown is in my open boat, but my C1 has a similar one with wide flanges at the top for mounting. The C1 seat is located by a single pin at the back, and side mounts attached to the boat support it and keep it centered.
It flops around a bit with no load, so it's easy to slide my feet out in an emergency.
Not that I'd ever need that feature...
I've converted a RAD 175 (same outfitting and cockpit size as the slick-stick). I pulled out the k-boat seat and thighbraces (actually the thighbraces were already gone, but that's another story...) and cut out the thigh brace mounting tabs. If you don't mind never being able to convert the boat back (resale value), it makes a huge difference and lets you spread your knees the whole way to the outside of the hull. I left the plastic spine/pillar assembly in the boat, and built my saddle off of it. start by glueing pieces of foam along the sides and middle of the bottom of the spine to make a surface that's flush with the raised ridges in the spine. I glued pieces in that were a little higher than the ridges, then sanded it down to flush by running a hacksaw back and forth across it. Now simply build you saddle off of this platform using foam.
I also used the original spine as the anchor for my thigh straps. Near where the water bottle holder is, drill a small hole on the outside for the bolt, and a larger (1 inch or so) hole on the inside to allow access to put the bolt trough the outer hole from the inside.
I hope this makes sense- all of the other c-boaters I've shown my set up to have been pretty impressed with it, and boat weighs about 5 lbs less than my k-1 RAD. If you have any questions, or want any pictures, let me know and I'll see what I can come up with.
is absolute poo and constantly flexes and moves.