Myron, I'm not very canoe-part saavy, but *sometimes* I can tell my ass

from a hole in the ground. ;-) I guess once I pull it out to work on
it I'll have to provide the before and after shots to prove it. I'M
TELLIN' YA, the bow seat is MUCH farther forward than any other canoe
I've seen. I thought so when I bought it, and I know so now that I've
used it.
--
TL,
Tim

Personally, I could never tell MY ass from a hole in the ground,
because I never have actually seen my ass. :-)

Yeah, quite a few shorter boats (13-15 footers) have the bow seat too
far forwards. I've seen them placed almost symmetrically in each end,
which is foolish. Thats because the hull really is better suited for a
solo boat, but they are rigging them primarily for tandem. That puts
the stern in a rather nice spot, crammed way back there, but then the
bow paddler has to be crammed up front in order to counterbalance.
Either that, or the guy installing the hardware had his head up a hole
in the ground.

The third seat in an Osprey is too centered to be a solo seat; its for
a third person. Your initial plan of moving one seat closer to the
center is just fine, but you ought to consider moving both to keep it
balanced. A good way to estimate the correct position without floating
the boat is to go to a site like www.oldtowncanoe.com, and look at some
top views of their boats, and get the proportionate distances off the
pictures. I think the arrangement in the Stillwater 14 is about what
you want, but I'd move the stern seat about 1/2 seat width closer to
the center. That particular rigging they show would be stern-heavy with
two people: it's actually set up as a solo boat with tandem capability.
Compare that setup with the Stillwater 12: (the pictures are scaled to
the same size). The bow seat in the 12 footer is almost a full seat
width farther from the midline. That boat is set up as a tandem.

One thing about Old Town that I could never understand: they put their
carrying yokes in backward. When you have the canoe on your shoulders,
its nice to have that secondary thwart in front of you to hold on to.
We always turned the yokes around on all our new OT boats.

Wish I was there to help you...this is the type of thing I understand
and can pitch in with.

--riverman