Success!
Below are some pics of what I rigged up - it works though not how I expected it would and it's a bit unwieldy but it works. It needs a couple adjustments
I wound up using straps and sewing them up. I felt better sewing that any attempt at reliable knot making... It just required to sew a square and cross in each area of strap overlay. (I did two squares.) The buckles are only sewn on one side which worked out well - my cross strap placement was a bit off and it worked better when I tightened them up.
I thought I would be using the ladder more so the cross horizontal straps wouldn't give (bow closer? My weight would pull the lines from the handle back taught and the cross straps would be somewhat taught too) so the first strap you'd grab is too close and the far strap is a bit too far.
I didn't use it as I thought I would. My legs still wanted to drift uselessly under the boat. The cross straps wound up helping me get better grips to get up on my stomach without the use of the ladder where I somewhat faltered again THEN I got my feet into the ladder to better scrabble the rest of the way.
Inelegant but it worked!
I will have to practice more. I do find getting over the seat tricky. I may figure a way to strap the seat so I can toss it aside/offboard to get by it then bring it back aboard.
Here's the pics, sorry if they are really big, it's what tapatalk does with my iPad pics, I don't know how to make them smaller...