Just got back from a weekend in Morro-Bay Calif. While not nearly as challenging as the Great Northwest, we still had a great time for our limited experience.

My question:

My buddy, his wife and I all paddled Wilderness "Cape Horn" boats, two 170's and a 140. The boats were great but they were two years old and one year old respectively and all had their older plastic seats.
They now have a new Phase 3 seating option with newer boats and it's adjustable and were REALLY 100% better than the older seats.
My friends are going to purchase the older boats as they are selling their stock off and getting new boats in November.
Couldn't beat the prices. $1,400 for both boats, and the 140 is a year old and hasn't a scratch on it... They will be totally high-pressure washed, re-strung with new safely lines, deck bungies, new rudder cables and the scratches sanded out and 303 polished before delivery.

We are trying to redo the seats, but can't find the phase 3 seats for those models. Wilderness' website states that they are only put into the new boats and there WON'T be any retrofit models offered.
They do have some after-market pads that can be added to the older seats and hip braces areas.
Has anyone used those aftermarket accessories and are they worth the $$$'s they want for them... They want $20 to $60 for each padding addition.. but we haven't used them and are not sure if it will do the trick.

What other options might work with the existing seats option.. ( which is apparently not an option ).. ??

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On another note, we shopped every kayak/surf shop in the area and found that very few touring kayaks exist in this area. 99% of what are sold or rented are Sit on Tops. Guess folks are a bit clostraphobic down here... ??

Went to a small local kayak/canoe race in a neighboring town ( Los Osos ) and there was only one wooden kayak to be seen... a Yar, built back in the late 80's. He said that he's built another boat once and that was a Tred Avon. His boat was nice but I was astonished that there weren't more boat builders in the area...

Upon asking around, I found that only one shop owner had even ever heard of anyone building their own kayak in the area. When I mentioned building a Stripper, a Stitch & Glue and Skin boat, all I got was " Oh Wow... REALLY ???"
So, although kayaking is getting very pupular in the area, it's mostly tourists coming in and they are using "Sit-on-Tops" exclusively. 5 years ago there was one kayak shop, and It was part of a surf-board shop and was pretty much a novelty. Now there are 4 or 5 shops on the water front that mostly rent and a half dozen others that just sell gear and an occasional boat.

Might be interesting to introduce wooden boats to these folks...

Anyway, it was a fun, and informative weekend at the coast for this inlander...

Rehd