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Sailing Kayaks & Canoes by Graham Russell Designing a Sailing Canoe |
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Design |
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My previous experience of sailing had been owning a number of kayaks, including one sea kayak and also a folding boat. I had also owned a Nation 12 Dinghy. The canoes were fine, but needed an effort to paddle. The dinghy was fine but was heavy and difficult to launch and sail solo or to explore narrow riverletts or creeks. What I really wanted was a combination of the two. When I read about 'Rob Roy' (see the history section) I realised such a boat was a genuine possibility for me.
My first attempt was to build a open canoe using plans sold by a UK outlet. The canoe was probably fine for it's purpose: sailing in lakes in the north west of England, but proved less than idea for my application, in river and around the coast of southern England, in addition to sailing holidays to other parts of the country. What I needed was more of a sea kayak than an open canoe which could easily be swamped by waves.
I therefore started to search the internet and library for something which would more suit my needs. In Victorian times sailing canoes were a popular hobby, please see the history section for more information. I obtained details of many of these vessels. Most of the American designs were again unsuitable in my view for UK coastal water. I was however impressed by two canoes in particular, the first was a version of Baden Powell's 'Nautilus' and the second an American design called 'Shadow' or 'Dot'.
These boats were designed for racing and touring and were rather heavy for my use, being ballasted and using a heavy wood construction.
I wanted a boat which could be readily car-topped, paddled easily but also rigged out and sailed without a great deal of time and effort.
Eventually I decided on using the approximate shape of a Greenland Eskimo kayak, shortened to ease carriage and construction form 3 sheets of ply. I increased the draft slightly to increase freeboard in order to accommodate the extra weight and widened to ease movement whilst sailing. I then incorporated many of the features from Dot and Nautilus to produce a sailing version.
I next obtained a design program which I used to produce a detailed design, graphics and also development of the hull in CAD form, which I could mark onto the ply sheets for cutting.
A further program was used for sail design. My original canoe had a bermudian rig. This didn't seem large enough, so I had opted to also make a more traditional lug sail of around 5sqm, reefing down to 3sqm and a small storm sail of about 2sqm.
With drawings completed, it was time to clear the garage and start building.
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Design |
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