Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2024

This seat is a minimalist form, ergonomically evolved for comfortable maximum power transmission from the rower to the oars. It is patterned after the seats in the John Wieland, a restored 1877 six oared (sweep) Whitehall lapstrake rowing barge in the fleet of the Dolphin Club in San Francisco.
My interest in seating was first inspired by John Kassay, a longtime professor at San Francisco State University. He was the author of 2 U. Mass. Press books, the second being The Book of American Windsor Furniture. The sliding seat is a bottom shaped slab, like a Windsor seat and the steps to making it are the same.
In this lecture demo, I will show the development of parts with partially assembled seats in various stages so that attendees can see the complete process.