Joe_Schmeaux wrote on Sep 26^th, 2012 at 6:58am:

You need to put a little notch in the cutout section to accomodate your seventh cervical vertebra (at the base of your neck):   (You need to Login or Register I used his design for my stripper's yoke and it makes a huge difference. And you won't need any wussy pads unless your canoe is over 80 lbs (which it isn't) or you're doing a lot of portages of a mile or more. ;D

Yeah.  I'd thought about that, but just hadn't gotten to it yet.  I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the time adding it to the mock-up design. 

Actually the slots were initially used as direct mounts to the seat.  This gave me a little left/right adjustment, but was just a little too far to the rear to result in good fore/aft balance.

I'm giving consideration to two other adaptations as well:  (a) adding extra material around the side cut-outs to add strength (they look a little thin to handle much bouncing along the portage) and (b) tilting the yoke part so that it is flat with my body when carrying (the current design is angled slightly).

Keep those suggestions coming ... its going to be a while until I'm back in north country for a canoe trip ... looking for little winter projects.   :)

dd