Recliner for the Chief

Let's talk design.

Any one of us could anticipate problems with design.  If you were asked to design a boat for a race, you would no doubt put seats in it.  But, making those seats work well could only come out of a process.  The seats on the Learning Curve were a sort of inspired moment with some kydex and a thermal forming machine. They were really quite brilliant, except they didn't work.
On my very first test of the Curve, my friend Alex and I couldn't use the seats.  They were too high and made the boat want to tip.  So they sat in my fiend Dave's garage for a long time.  Eventually, I adapted them with some lacing and they worked very well.  That testing of a design is what prototyping is about, and it is the reason I want to build everything right away.  I guess a quick map of the process looks like this:
1) identify problem/opportunity
2) consider solutions
3) mock it up
4) evaluate the solution and refine
5) build prototype/functional model/proof of concept
6) test
7) refine
and so on.

The drawings happen throughout, but I normally don't worry too much about styling until I know what it has to be.  Once there, I can decide what it wants to look like, or what I want it to look like.

The seats in the Curve are functional, and they work really well.  But in an endurance race, comfort is king.  If you are going to spend fifteen hours in a seat, it is a good idea to make sure it is comfortable.  So, recently (and this is after sixty miles of practice) Meers wanted a back on his seat.  His back hurt from the paddling and maintaining an upright posture.  Also, I noticed he couldn't stretch his legs out.  I asked about that and he said he didn't feel like he was in contact with the canoe in the same way when his legs were extended.  Excellent.
Now if I was to formalize this (say, for a client) I would create a brief around designing a seat for endurance racing.  I would verbalize these opportunities as the objectives of the goal and probably include things like weight and material (light, water proof, maybe floating).  For my own purpose, I just started sketching ideas one night while waiting for the hull to dry.

They aren't particularly detailed drawings and I didn't feel like shading was all that important.  What I did was wait for Meers to come back and we talked about how they could go.  Then we mocked them up and discussed the merits.  Then we built something we could test.

Ugly as it was, it worked really well.  What this tells me, is that I have a model to build on for future iterations.   Since the Curve is not a racing boat, I am not going to keep this in place.  After Kansas, I am going to disassemble it and put the thing back the way it was.  But what I will gain is some valuable knowledge about what seats like this would need, and how I can integrate them into the next boat I build.

Meers-Cat and I staring at the barn... but you can see our personalized PFDs