The new WinTech adaptive seat has proven a popular favourite in the adaptive community – easy to attach, lightweight, comfortable. Marlow has 4 of them that are used regularly. That use, especially by one of our PR1 rowers training intensively for international competition has highlighted a bit of a design weakness that people should be on the look out for. The sharp-ish edge of the carbon-fibre back (see directly below) can cut through the chest strap which runs across it. The chest-strap get huge pressure from top flight PR1 rowers. They have been known to break ribs applying so much pressure to get further reach. The photo above shows how the strap cut clean through. This equipment failure happened on the water which could have resulted in a capsize (which you never want to see in a fixed seat…though on the upside there would be one less strap to remove). The fix is to simply attach some foam (see photo below) or tape on the edge (see photo below) reduce the edge’s sharpness. And inspect the straps regularly for wear anyway which is always good practice.
On Mari Durward-Akhurst’s modified Wintech seat, I do believe that this potential problem was originally identified and avoided – by the addition of bespoke, rounded wooden bolsters.