A Seat that Works for Margot
Margot is troubled by sciatica. We tried several alternatives to the
bare floorboards. These incuded a simple foam pad, an inflatable pad
and a seat pad from an another commercial kayak (don't remember which).
Earlier we had spent a couple of days in an Eddyline Whisper on Lake
Ross, WA
where the sciatca did not show up, so Margot thought a plain fiberglass
seat with the right shape might work. The Whisper had a molded seat
with no padding.
I have some skills with fiberglass, so she took a block of buoyancy
foam and carved a seat that she thought had the right shape.
Buoyancy foam is very easy to shape with a wire brush. By the time I
shaped the bottom to fit the Sea Tour floor the bottom of the seat was
only about 1/4" above the floorboards. I took the
resulting block of foam and glassed it. I used 6 oz. boat cloth, 2 plys
on the top and 1 ply on the bottom and sides.West System epoxy with
carbon filler.
Yesterday we went for an approximately 7 mile paddle (flat water) and
the sciatica did not show up. So maybe we are on the right track. Here
are some pictures.
Update 9/14/2010.
It turns out the shape is not right yet. I should have kept it in foam
a little longer. I neglected to shape the bottom of the foam billet to
fit the floorboards, so it broke apart when Margot was testing the
shape. Margot thought it was right, so I stuck it back together with
microslurry and glassed it. I think if I had shaped the bottom to the
floorboards the foam billet would have stayed in one piece and Margot
could have used it longer in raw foam.
So my plan is to dremel out the offending area and build it back up
with foam-in-place. Maybe minicell is a better idea. TBD.
Velcro to anchor the seat.
