: Hi Brian

: You are right about the sense of sitting high in the Explorer. I
: don't know what the current ones are like. Mine is a fairly old
: MV one I use for guests as it is really too small for me and I
: have other boats I would rather be in anyway.

: Part of the problem with mine is that the seat that came with it
: is, in my opinion, diabolical. The guy who had it before me had
: tried all sorts of inserts and adjustments to improve the seat
: and back-band arrangement. I just removed the factory seat all
: together and had done with it. I just bunged in the seat pad
: (pictured below) and it is better, if not perfect.

: I actually can't imagine why anyone would want to copy a factory
: design which is inevitably going to have compromise built in, in
: order to accommodate the biggest range of potential customers.

: There are so many beautiful shapes and sizes of kayak available for
: us home builders, and we can tweak them to suit our unique
: wants. This is one of the great benefits of kayak DIY: one can
: have the boat that is truly custom fitted to our height, shape
: (round is also a shape), weight, ability, and its intended use.

: Happy paddling

: Et

I'll agree about NDK's seats, the factory seat in my Greenlander is just plain awful. I've thought many times about cutting the darned thing out and tossing it, but havn't done it yet, have to have something to complain about .

Bill H.