The International Canoe

I'm mulling over building a new carriage for 257 to match my older and lighter seat which lacks an intact carriage.

Couple of questions...

Seat height off the deck. This was significantly different between my two setups. Higher seems to be easier to get onto from standing up after a tack - less of a drop seems to help - but more clumsy for moving round the boat, lower the reverse. Is there any consensus for what are good dimensions? I did wonder about having a seat so low that you would just run onto it as per wings, and then sit down later, but I think common sense has prevailed there, and I've realised that would just be a 51st way to leave my IC...

Top "flange". Both the carriages have/had a single point in the centre on the aft end to retain the upward load from the seat, but a continuous flange on the front. What's the reason for this, I was thinking that it might be better to have the same load points on both sides, one way or the other...

Like all thinks Canoe, there are many ways to design & construct a carriage but I'll give you a look back on why & how I build my current carriages on IC's & AC's. Most carriages back in the 70's,80's & early 90's were generally fairly low in the UK. Reasons, lower c/g, slightly lighter (maybee). Having tried higher ones, it did make it more comfortable to move on & off the seat & also gave a small increas in height above the water whick is better in waves & not much increas in weight if done properly. The top of the carriage front rail from the deck is 220mm. There are very few low carriages now on UK Canoes. With DC's, some have high gunwales with lower floors so you may well need lower carriages here.
The design of my carrriages incorperates a full width front rail & small central aft bracket that combines the mainsheet jammer. The front rail needs to be full width so when the seat hits the water it does not force the seat up out of the carriage. Rob.

The 220mm dimension is at the gunwale.