Sitting in the front is actually pretty dry when you have good spray skirts and tramps on the boat, (much dryer than the back seat on my boat anyway). I have spray skirts for the back seat made up for the boat also which makes the back seat a little dryer, and I could hike out on them if I really wanted to, (they are pretty heavy duty like my front spray skirts, (that I can sit on if needed). But the rear spray skirts are a bit of a pain to install so they just sit in the garage 90% of the time (I only use them in January when the water is too cold here). On my tramps I have 5 paracord ropes strung under the tramp from the front AKA bar straight back to the rear AKA brace with an additional paracord ran at an angle from the rear AKA cross bar (where it attaches to the hull) out to the outer front AKA bar, and wrapped around the aka bar then slipped over the button on the AKA bar. None of those ropes are ever removed from the boat, so they don't add any rigging time. As a result my tramps don't sag when I sit on them and we can walk around on them with our scuba tanks on (we are likely over 300 lbs when all geared up). The extra string only weighs a few ounces, and all rolls up in the tramp, (they don't effect rigging time at all).
Since my boat is now widened quite a bit, there is now a big gap between the outer edge of the tramps and the AMA's (about a foot or so). If I can come up with a design for some 6-8" wide hakas that weigh under 5lbs, that will support my weight, I will likely add them. If not I will make do without Haka's. Years ago I helped design and build some wings on a home built, The wings were foam core carbon fiber, and I recall they were feather light and really really strong. I remember making several scale mock ups about 8" wide that we could sit on, if I can duplicate that design I'll make the HAKA's. Just for fun.
The main reason I sit in the front is if I have way too much sail out, and the boat starts to flip, I have the option of bailing out of the seat and clamoring onto the tramp to prevent the boat from going over, ( have had to do it many times). If I'm stuck in the back seat, I can only watch it happen, (can't do anything about it stuck in the rear seat). I've been caught out in 35mph winds with 4-5ft vertical waves several times now, if you go into those waves sideways the boat flips if your not hiked out on the tramp as it crests the wave. If your stuck in the back seat, your pretty screwed, (just saying). Plus with the outboards, I don't want to be anywhere near those things, so if you don't mind, I'll continue to solo from the front seat. FE
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