Vantage seat support chord upgrade

Just purchased a new 2015 PA14 awesome buy...
My 2nd trip out pedaling out to sea the seat recline chord braid came apart and wham I was instantly laying flat on my back. Frustrated I continued thru out the day like that luckily it was a calm day not much wind and swells.
The next day I took my seat back to the dealer at Maui Adventure Sports in Kahului Maui, they fashioned a parachord and double stitched the ends 10x stronger than the original. So for us 300 pound plus kayakers I would recommend you do the same. As i examined the seat that day of the seat fail, all that holds that seat in the upright position is that little nylon braided chord that can give way in a moments notice...

Do you have a pic of the work they did?


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I purchased a new PA-14 this spring, third time out the same thing happened to my vantage seat. After the next two times out the line under the seal released. The knots were not holding. Fixed them myself but it might be something for Hobie to look more closely. Not in the way of a complaint because I love my Hobie but when you pay over $3000 for a kayak these kind of things shouldn't happen. Time to strengthen up the weak points. By the way I weight 170, not too beastly.

Hobie, take notes..... Hope you guys value the feedback from your Pro Angler owners.

Let's keep peddling!

_________________
Just a Kid to the End

I tried to upload my photos today. But how the heck are you supposed to do that? Ill try again later...

Here is some pics of the upgrade work...








I think this will outlast the factory chord for sure...

Ever buy a car an not have warranty issues? Not making excuses for this one, but that is what warranty is for. It is not a guarantee that nothing will go wrong.

We did experience a vendor change to the cord material... This allowed the splice to slip. We had to lengthen the splice a bit... fixed some time last summer or spring I believe.

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Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I have seen this problem in person 2 times now on 2014 boats. There is a consignment boat at my local dealer with this issue. It broke the bottom seat cord. Then just yesterday I saw a YouTube video of a guy fishing the Devil River with a broken cord on the bottom seat.

Apparently as mmiller said there was an issue, but possibly it was corrected in the new boats.

This had been the biggest reason for me holding off on purchasing the 2016 PA 14. My buddy has a 2015 that I have played around with and I really like it. Earlier this week I was looking at his seat to see how I could modify it to make it stronger with paracord similar to how you did. Even with the change they apparently did I don't feel all that great with his 2015 seat. Since I'm pushing the weight limit it just seems wise to upgrade it a little. I doubt normal sized people would have issues out of theirs since Hobie corrected the situation.


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