Last fall I purchased an Old Town Penobscot 16 that had a hole in the cane for the rear seat. I know many people have converted these over to webbing, but was curious to know if anyone has tried drilling holes and lacing them up similar to how Nova Craft does their seats?

I actually really like the boot lace seats and it seems like it could be just as easy to do as webbing and more field-repairable. My first thought was it would be cool to do it with 550 paracord, but I don't think you'd want it to stretch, so I'll probably have to find some poly cord. Also was wondering if the stock Old Town seat frame could tolerate drilling all those holes and still retain enough strength...

The other option is to just save myself the trouble and buy a $37 replacement cane seat from northwest canoe, but that's no fun...

I modify equipment all the time. Sometimes it works out well and sometimes not so well. If you are not using the canoe soon I would try it then test and evaluate before relying on it for a trip. If it doesn't meet your expectations or you are not confident about the strength replace it with the $37 seat.

I have fun every time I look at the cane replacement I did on my Penobscot 17:

Cane Canoe Seat Repair Kit

When the cane gave out on my Mad River, I switched to to webbed seats. No problems and no regrets. But cane does look better.

I have repaired many cane seats with this weave. This seat is 20 years old in this photo. It is now 35 and going strong. 3/16 solid braid nylon.

My question is a bit different. Do you ever plan on selling it? If so, you want the cane seat, best done with the original or second best with replacement,. That will make it more salable. I did a paracord repair similar to sedges (no pictures) when the cane on my 1935 Old Town unexpectedly gave out on a trip. However, since have recaned it. If you do a search you will find dozens of posts on recaning chairs. I got my supplies from Michaels many years ago. Don't know if they still have them. Good luck. Recaning is one of those jobs that takes patience and time, but I think you will be happier with it.

I recaned a seat on a Blackhawk canoe using a kit sold by edscanoe.com. It wasn't much cheaper than buying a replacement seat but I wanted to keep the original seat and look. It came out better than expected for a first attempt.