I've just bought a used MorningStar canoe that's missing its seats. (See below) I can order them (as well as other repair stuff) from Northstar, but I wonder if there might be a lighter option. The Northstar seats are laminated walnut. Any suggestions?

Don't put cheap seats in canoe. The wood seats that Northstar sells will be durable and don't weigh much. In addition the hole size coming down from the rails is less than 1/4 inch. You will be dealing with problems you don't want to deal with looking for other seats. Northstar is going to have the stainless steel hardware, drops and seats drilled to exact size as your original canoe was made. Don't create more problems for yourself.

Here are a couple of options often mentioned:

Ed's Canoe

Essex Industries

Northstar also sells laminated ash seats. I put one in a Bell Magic and plan to get another for my Merlin II. It's already on the light side among canoe seats. And just FYI I think their "laminated walnut" is mostly ash too. Congrats on your new boat!

Northstar now has carbon web seats. You may need to ask for a direct sale if they will even do that. You still need to mount them with the ash holder and long stems. But they are lighter.

Also Savage RIver has carbon seats as an option for their canoes you may be able to buy one from them.

ZRE has lightweight seats as well.

buying from someone other than Northstar will probably require some ability to problem solve install. For some on this site easy peezy...others including myself not so much :)

T

I believe that the Savage river seats are built by ZRE.