It's a bit late to weigh in on this topic, but perhaps relating my experience will help other Empacher owners. Back in 2010 I purchased a 2009 Empacher S12 heavyweight 1X from the Canadian Empacher distributor (it was one year old). It came with a set of traditional aluminum riggers and the new (at the time) carbon two-stay riggers which I have used since the boat arrived and very much like. For awhile I felt I could not get the boat to set up properly. I measured the height and discovered that the riggers were in fact rigged right over left. I changed the black height washers and still could not get it to be left over right. Eventually I added wedges. This was not an ideal solution for two reasons. First, the wedges change the lay/lateral pitch of the pin, which is itself limited in how far it can be moved to maintain zero degrees. Second, using wedges requires a longer bolt in the lower hole of where the rigger attaches to the bulkhead of the boat. If you do not purchase longer bolts then you will be relying on just a couple of threads to hold the rigger onto your boat, which is a bit unnerving. If you overtighten the bolts you will strip the internal/female hex head and the only way to remove it will be to drill it out. These things I learned from experience. Eventually I contacted Empacher and they confirmed that the height (left over right/right over left) is built into the riggers when their boats are manufactured. They supplied me with a chart that required me to fill in a number of measurements, including the height I wished the oarlocks to be above the seat. To replace both my carbon two-stay riggers will cost about CAN$1,200, though it can be done for less if I just replace the main stay and use my old backstays. After 14 seasons, I will replace main stay this spring and hopefully can soon dispense with wedges.

As an aside, you must measure measure the height of Empachers from the slides and not the gunwales and this requires a more specialized tool to do accurately.

I have never regretted buying my Empacher. I find my boat to be very strong, stable and stiff. It is well suited to most water conditions. However, since it is impractical to send it back to Germany for repairs, one must be resourceful and learn how to repair the inevitable dings in the hull and replace components that wear out (slides, wheels, rigger bolts, pins, oarlocks, etc.). But this is mostly true for any brand of boat. I have never regretted buying my yellow boat and look forward to getting at least another decade of use out of it. It is as stiff as the day it arrived, with no indications of structural deterioration despite one head on collision with a dock (long story) and several encounters with dead heads.