I'm with you IDriverRunner. I prefer my flip seat. Most of these guys are old school and don't know and have likely never experienced the pleasures of a "seat". Flip seats can be rigged low or they can be a bit higher or very high. I prefer the view from a bit higher.
These guys tend to be totally and exclusively dialed into only one perspective, a box to sit on under their ass. Be it a dry box or a cooler. If you prefer, you can actually rig a flip seat to have a rowing position lower than that required by the top of a high capacity dry box or cooler in excess of 200 quarts. Bottom line, they are anti-seat, old school and whinners concerning other ideas.
The physics concerning lower is better is perhaps true but slimming around on a flat surface lacking proper positioning is in my opinion inexperienced with regard to ever having experienced other options. Let me repeat this, many of that opinion have likely never sat on a seat.
That said, to each their own. I prefer the comfort of a seat any day.
Are you kidding me?
You spent an entire thread trying to convince all of us that a high back seat was the ONLY way to go when basically everyone else was being reasonable and stating their preference and why. I can't say with 100% certainty, but I'm pretty sure that those of us that prefer a padded cooler have tried seats and decided it wasn't for them.
But please...go on and keep making it personal.
As for the original post... I think its completely reasonable to replace a thwart with a cooler or dry box. There is a reason why thwarts are removable.
You obviously have options ranging from just sticking a pad on to of the cooler or drybox and sitting on that, to fabricating a seat mount that sits on the cooler (a buddy of mine does this...he just made a playwood board that with an NRS raft seat bolted to it), to the NRS flip seat that still uses a tractor seat, to the fabricated seats that are primarily attributed to DownRiver frames. Each have their pluses and minuses...so you just have to maybe try a few options.
One downside to the DRE style is that you have to order it in a specific spread between the legs front to back since it sits on the raft frame. This means if you get a different cooler or want to change the raft frame for any reason, you have to buy a new seat (or cut the existing one up and weld it back together). Not a deal breaker...but something to keep in mind.
Already discussed are the different reasons you may or may not want a seat that raises you up off the frame so I'll leave it there.
I think seats have their place...but I'm not a fan of the high back ones, especially the super rigid and high backed DRE style ones since they don't allow you a full range of movement. I have a hard time getting a real power stroke in if I can't lean back past a upright sitting position.
As has been said, the seat position isn't everything. Oar tower heights, how wide the oars locks are apart, how far in front of you the oar tower is, your relation to center of the boat, the length of your oars, and many other factors come into play and personal preference plays a huge role in it.
I'd say if you really don't feel like you get a power stroke sitting on an NRS lowback seat mounted to the frame...then its probably more to do with oar tower placement and height then it is to do with your seat.
Seats certainly are an option, but so is sitting on a padded cooler. However, just because some guys running class V in small floorless creek cats use a seat (one of the scenarios that seems like the right place for one), doesn't mean its the only answer for every setup and person out there.
But yeah...get rid of that thwart and gain yourself some space for gear for sure.
