To raise a seat that's hung from the gunwales, remove the bolts, cut the (usually wooden) vertical spacers into 2 or 3 pieces, and reassemble with one or more of the spacer pieces now beneath the seat, depending on height needed. You can easily return to the original height because you still have the spacers, and you have not had to shorten the bolts.

Seat hung from gunwhales

To raise a seat that's on rails riveted to the hull, you can find the best height by experimenting using longer bolts and wooden spacers between the seat and the rails. To raise the rails, drill out the rivets. Tape the hull outside and fill the holes from inside with 5-minute epoxy, then re-mount the rails higher with new holes and rivets or stainless bolts. If the hull is significantly wider at the new height, you may need to insert a spacer between the rails and the hull.

Hull-mounted seat

If the seat is suspended by a metal plate with a flange, remove the seat, place a strip of wood as a spacer on top of the flange, and re-install the seat with longer bolts.

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