John

How can we access the newly responsible piantedosi outfit?

 Best to order through you??

 Thanx! in advance.

Is that seat installed backwards?

No, the cutout on the seat faces the bow. It's there to take pressure off your tailbone.

Glad to hear this little drama has resolved itself. 

I'm curious who these 'other suppliers' will be.  Will there  be other sliding seat manufacturers involved?  Or will it just be an alternate supplier of the same unit?

Does anyone know if the Piantedosi web site is a reliable way to contact the new owners? I'm interested in a scout rig, but I don't think CLC sells that one.

Thx.

Personally, I would like to see CLC take another look at their sliding seat options, especially for boats like the Wherry that are built almost exclusively for rowing.   I have been intending to build the wherry as my next boat, but my one reservation is that I can not see putting an 18 pound rigger in a boat that is supposed to come in at 68 lbs.  I know that one can do a lot better.  I have what I consider a much more elegant rigger, also made by Piantedosi, on my Little River Regatta that doesn't weigh more than four or five pounds.  The sliding seat is on two graphite rails that weigh almost nothing and the seat itself is carbon and very light.  Similar rigs are found in almost all sliding seat shell type craft.  I do not see any major obstacle to incorporating a rig like the one in the Regatta into the wherry except for the development effort and the end result would be a faster and more responsive but equally beautiful boat.   The only liability might be that would not be readily adaptable to the other boats in the line.  But maybe not.  The secret to reducing the weight is to get rid of the monorail, replacing it with more conventional tracks.  The monorail was a great innovation on the Concept II Ergs, but there is no penalty for weight when you are rowing in your basement. 

RGR 

Hi Bob,

I am intrigued by the rigger you describe in your Little River Regatta. You mentioned this was a Piantedosi product but I do not see it for sale on their website. Is it only available in the Little River Regatta?

Thanks

I presume the rigger was custom made for Little River Marine by Piantedosi which is why he is not advertising it.  That said, I just checked out the Little River Marine site to see if there were any good photos of it and discovered that they no longer mention Piantedosi anywhere, even in their description of their Guide boat with a photo of the Piantedosi drop in unit.  The same boat tricked out as the Heritage series now has swing out riggers.  Perhaps they  have been having supply problems similar to CLC's and have gone elsewhere for rigger hardware.  They are still showing the Regatta Cambridge and higher end shells with the rigger I mentioned, but no longer attribute it to Piantedosi or anyone else either.  It is apparently no longer a selling point.   The  Regatta rigger is a nice piece of welded aluminum tubing, right up there with a quality bicycle frame, but nothing so special that half a dozen shops in baltimore couldn't replicate it. 

Another point, Little River is giving the weight of the rigger as 9 lbs. which is heavier than the claims I remember when I bought it.  Also, I am surprised that it would be that heavy, although I have never actually weighed it.  Alternatively, perhaps there has been a manufacturing change and there was real magic in the Piantedosi version.

 The main point is still that there may be better and lighter ways to rig the Wherry and the scull also for that matter.  With any luck it might be less expensive as well. 

Bob R.   

I dug this thread back up to mention something I noticed on Piantedosi's new website:

http://www.rowingrigs.com/slidingrig.html

The above link is to a sliding RIG drop-in unit.  Not sure if this is news to everyone else, but I had no idea this item was available.  

For those of you unfamiliar: CLC sells a sliding SEAT drop-in with its rowing kits.  Apparently there is a sliding rig unit available which enhances boat performance by keeping the rower's weight stationary over the hull preventing "hobby horsing."  In this model the oar locks and foot stretchers move on a monorail while the seat is kept stationary.  Another advantage would be to prevent one's clothing from getting caught in the seat runners. 

I wonder if the CLC guys have looked at this product at all?