: It's time to make my hardware list and order or buy what I need to hang my
: seats, thwart, yoke, and carrying thwarts but I haven't got a clue as to
: what I need.

: Geez, I'm helpless. What would I do without you folks? I don't want to think
: about it.

: I guess I'll use stainless. Do I want carriage bolts or a different type of
: bolt? I'm not going to do anything fancy like hide the hardware under a
: wood plug. I saw somewhere that you can use finish washers but I assume
: you don't use those with carriage bolts, just a regular machine screw?

: I know I need a nut on the very bottom. Woohoo! Smart, huh? Should I get a
: locking nut so there's less danger of it working loose over time? And I
: assume you want some kind of washer both on the top and the bottom. Do you
: also put a washer between the gunnel and the thwart or is that just asking
: water to get in there rather than preventing it. Help!!!!!!!

: From cruising around the net, it looks like maybe 3/16" x 2" bolts
: for the thwarts and yoke and 3/16" x 4 or 6" for the seats? I'm
: going to try to make my own seat hangers out of ash.

It's not fancy, but this is what I did on my Merlin. I used 1/4" diameter threaded stainless hex head carriage bolts from Home Depot along with stainless washers and a stainless and nylon lock nut to hang the seats and thwarts. To make the spacer between the seat and gunnel, I cut a section from an 1 1/8" oak dowel and drilled a 1/4" hole in the center. A 1 1/8" dowel matched the width of the seat support. I used a forsner drill bit to recess the head of the bolt and washer to the height of the top of the gunnel prior to drilling it for the bolt. This was for appearance only. You'll have to adjust the bolt lenghts to match the height of the gunnels and seat frame. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Kurt