: Lee, on the subject of positioning: I was planning on building my seat first,
: assuming the position, and marking the centerpoint of placement. Any
: caveats, leg position during measurement, etc., to get close the first
: time?

Jay Babina designed the Outer Island so that the backband should be 3" foreward of the rear edge of the cockpit coaming. I forget which kayak you're building, so you'll have to find out where that magic point is. I figured where the footbraces should go by sitting with my back to a wall and measured from the wall to my splayed toes, then added 3". This is about where the center of the rails should be if you're normal-sized. If you're 6'4", you're on the high side of the bell curve, so I'd put the rails so that the pegs are toward the far end -- that way if you let others use the boat or sell it down the road, it will fit more people. I like my feet angling a bit foreward, but this might just be do to the fact that I have size-12 clod-hoppers.

VERY IMPORTANT!: When installing footpegs, measure AT LEAST twice before mounting the pegs. You need to make sure they're mounted the same distance away, otherwise you'll be uncomfortable. Mounting the pegs in my Arctic Tern was easy because I could measure the location from the butt-joints on the hull's side panels, but it's much more difficult on a stripper. There isn't a consistent datum to measure from! I bolted thru the hull, so I put masking tape on the ridge of the deck and marked a spot for the foreward and rearward screws. Then I put a straightege cross-wise to the kayak and marked the same points on the shear where I intended to mount them. Then, as a double-check, I took a flexible reel-type tape measure and measured from the cockpit at the center of the deck down to the 2 rearward screws and made sure the distances were the same. Even though I thought I was overly retentive about this, I think my left brace is just slightly foreward of the right one! Given the inconsistently-drilled mounting holes on the Yakima pegs, I wonder if the distance from the mounting screws to the series of notches is the same. Given that Keepers are injection-molded plastic, they are probably much more consistent that the machined Yakimas...

Dean