: Hey, Shawn, I do have one question... Regarding the cheek plates in Nick's
: design and balance braces... Greg Stammer's advice to do the balance brace
: is to let the hips fall down all the way to the side of the boat. Can I do
: this well enough with cheek plates or do I need to find a way to attach a
: back sling to the cockpit rim as has been done by others?

Here's a spot where you can strike a balance between padding next to hips and cockpit height.

With a low cockpit, you can get back farther to get your weight low. With a high cockpit, but skinny padding next to your hips, you get to the side to get your weight low.

The Guillemot 18 has a semi-high coaming, and almost no padding on the cheekplates...I can almost do a balance brace. If I shaved off the 1" of padding, it would be easier...

How wide are your hips? Do you need padding to fit in a 16" wide coaming?

A 21" wide boat isn't that wide. I can balance brace my VCP Avocet with ease...Greg balance braces his VCP Anas Acuta easily...both have a "cheekplate" that connects the seat to the coaming...both also have low coamings. It's not so much the cheekplate that might cause you difficulty, but any padding you add to it that might.

At any rate, you can always cut a cheekplate out, too.

You could potentially make a wider coaming which would give you a narrower cheekplate-to-shear distance.

Shawn

: I am eager to
: try Nick's seat on this rendition, to see if it works better for the
: layback rolling manuevers. Thus I need to design something to attach the
: seat straps onto.