INTRODUCTION
This seat is the second generation of "First Class" seating by Legacy Paddlesports. It was one of the first projects I worked on with them and it was meant to "one-up" all others in the same class.
We started by making the seat more universal. It is now used in the majority of our Native Watercraft lineup but it doesn't stop there. Head out to the ball game, lake side concert, beach, campsite or your favorite fishing hole. It looks a little like a beach chair for a reason. We kept the superior fabric because of its aesthetics, superior UV resistance, mold resistance, strength and breathability. We worked directly with our in-house sewing team to make the seat easier to build and continue to refine our processes for all other sewn products to date.
We streamlined the whole assembly by eliminating costly ancillary parts that didn’t provide the customer what they really wanted. Instead of bungee to pull the backrest up, we used high quality neoprene. This cleaned up the whole seat pad and created a constant tension "glove".
The rubber feet reduce sound in the boat, prevent wear and make assembly easy. The injection molded knuckle that connects the rear bar can be used on the right or left and requires only a Philips screw driver for assembly. The nut snaps into the part and remains captured during assembly.
INSPIRATION
MODELING THE SEAT ASSEMBLY
PLASTIC COMPONENT DEVELOPMENT
DESIGNING THE PAD
Linda and I with the line up of seat fabric and patterns.
TESTING
Testing the finished product on a fogggy fall morning.
The local lake is nice and warm in the fall.
PRODUCTION
One of the many production stacks awaiting assembly.
ASSEMBLED BOATS
Assembling the seat.
Seat kit used to replace the high cost, low feature value and cumbersome seats in a previous model boat.
See: "Ultimate Seat Frame Design" for details.
Special thanks to:
Linda McKee for your Jedi skills, everyone in Sewing, Shane Benedict, Sam Spear, Bryon Phillips, Jared Sousa and Keith (Crawdaddy) Crawford and the rest of the Legacy Paddlesports team for letting me revise an already great product! You're all awesome!
A special shout out to Yonton and the Astral Buoyancy crew! Thanks for letting me use your sewing area while we were in the middle of a move.
Finally, thanks to my wife and kids for putting up with the long hours; I love you!
