: any thoughts on how/why that seat is shaped the way it is? With all this home
: carving you'd think the manufacturer would have figured this one out. It's
: short, and the 'wing' hip braces only work if you have 26" hips or
: the boat has no hip braces.

It just needed a few modifications...
When I started building kayaks, the idea of customizing a seat from something that already looked like a seat seemed easier than carving a seat from a block of foam. So I bought a "happy bottom" from CLC with my first boat (a CLC kit). The instructions that came with the kit said to put the cheek plates 17" apart, and the seat fit nicely between them. But those hip braces made the seat way too narrow, so I cut them back using a hack saw and dragon skin - took about 15 minutes, and it was perfect. Then I got to the seat bottom - another 10 minutes with a dragon skin. Seat was then perfectly comfortable - but after extended paddling, I had the dreaded NBS (Numb Butt Syndrome). I read that raising the front of the seat could relieve this. I cut three wedges from minicell foam (left over from the bulkheads)- each approximately 8" long, 1" wide, and 1" tall at the tall end - and put them under the seat - one on each edge, and one in the center. The seat is now absolutely perfect - for me. And all it took was about 30 minutes of easy "fine tuning" with hand tools - and a bandsaw to make the wedges (although I could have used a hack saw). I can now paddle all day in comfort. The seat set up has since been duplicated in my other two kayaks. Just seems a lot easier and faster than starting with a plain block of foam.