: Greetings all;
: After a couple of tests, it appears that moving the seat just a
: couple of inches (forward or back) can really affect the overall
: speed of the kayak. Is there a systematic approach to finding
: the best place to position the seat?

You performed it. Try it some more.

On my boat I designed myself I found my seat was too far forward when it did'nt feel as stable as I wanted so I
slid it back and things improved drastically....I even elongated my cockpit to aft
to try moving the seat further back a couple more inches.. The end result was I got a well balanced boat
that does not leecock, mildly wind cocks in heavy and extreme wind, neutral cocking with skeg adjustment,
I love the boat. Love every minute on the water with it.

I would have started over from scratch with another boat design had I not experimented with adjusting the seat
placement.