In reply to "O'Brien Headwater 14", posted by Will B on April 12, 2002:
>I am in the final stages of a Headwater 14. I have followed the plans religiously, but I am getting nervous about installing the seats.
>
>My concern is balance. The plans call for a fixed seats, and I am conerned that with a 25# anchor hanging off the back that the stern is going to be burried in the water.
>
>Does anyone out there have a HW 14 and have any final considerations. Epoxy is forever.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Will in Maine
Will,
The thing you need to do is decide whether the boat will be used solely for two people or not. A 14' boat is pretty tight to have two guys standing and fishing if that is the way you fish. (maybe you just use the boat for transport and then get out to fish?)
If it's alwaysgoing to be you and one other person then you can fix that rowers seat in one position.
If you will have two other people often than you should try and make the rowers seat moveable by at least a foot, for and aft. Most plans show the front seat to far back. (Tracy has some nice designs but I've noticed this on afew of his boats) Placement of the seats should go like this:
Front seat is dicated by the front person standing. They should be as far forward as two feet can comfortably stand in the triangle shaped front of the boat. Then give them a comfortable distance to stretch out the legs when sitting into that same front triangle. I've found that for most driftboats with traditional rocker (like Tracy's) the back of the front seat is about 40" from the front of the triangle. This leaves ample room to sit comfortably, and stand and take a half step forward into the casting
ace.
Ok, the rest of the seats. If the boat is to be used with three people- the rowers seat should be roughly 12-15" aft of the front oarlock position. This is a rough estimate, depending on how long the rower is arm and leg-wise. The front oarlock is typically almost right in the middle of the boat.
The back casting
ace should then be right behind the rowers seat when it is in the back position. This puts the front caster way up in the boat, the rower in the middle and the back caster a little less than a quarter way from the back. This usually mkes for good trim in the boat if there aren't huge diferences in the weight of everybody, which never happens. When I'm guiding, it never fails I get a guy just shy of 300lbs and his skiny little
other or his skinny trophy wife that wants to ride up front.
That's the rub with trim in a drift boat. There is never a "standard" load and the boats naturally trim in odd ways since they are all rocker and no waterline keel.
Maybe others have some good ideas on this. That's the way I do it.