I'm sort of partial to the seat that Uncle John has on his web site , not because I designed it but because it is comfortable and the right height for a Pirogue.
Before I put graphite on the bottom of my boat it was plain glass and would stick to the weeds , which made paddling threw them a lot harder. After putting the graphite on the bottom it slid threw the weeds. As a neighbor of mine , when he tried it in the weeds all he could say was that I had developed a 4 wheel drive boat. It just went threw the weeds like they were not there compared to a plain bottomed boat.
The guys that paddle where rocks are have told me that without the graphite they tear up the bottom of there boat and with the graphite all they get are some scratches to the graphite. It does offer extra protection since it is a lubricant and tends to slide over things where a plain bottomed boat would get worse damage.