One day, I decided that the seven kayaks, the canoe, and the transparent sailboat just weren't enough. Actually, they did not satisfy
my boating needs 100%. I wanted an ultralight canoe, that is cartopable, easy to handle and have plenty of space inside. I did not
want to bother with unnecesessary stuff that can be simplified. My idea of fun was to take the canoe off the car, put it in the
water, drop in the mast, the rudder, and be ready to go sailing.
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My idea of fun was to take the canoe off the car, put it in the
water, drop in the mast, the rudder, and be ready to go sailing. |
So, I ended up designing my own canoe, again. I decided to go skin-on-frame again, which really worked out very well for me in the past.
I wanted a bit more stability, so I had a wide beam about 38", and higher sides nearly 14". My mast
is only 12' long, but with a lug sail, I have plenty of power to push my canoe. I also got rid of the centerboard that pretty much
all small sailing vessels have nowadays. I found out on my transparent sailboat that the centerboard box has added a huge amount of weight
to the hull in relation to its size. In addition, the centerboard, as its name says, sits in the middle of the boat, taking up
room and making it awkward to move around it, cluttering up the boat's interior space. Not to mention the added loose piece, the centerboard,
that now I have to carry around, when cartoping the boat.
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After a long search, I decided to build my own partial shoal keel. Simply
taking the would be centerboard's area and spreading it along the centerline of the boat, but in a much shallower way, say 4 or 5" deep only.
The board is made out of a 1/2" plywood, with multiple layers of resin to protect it, attached through the fabric to the keel with a
few long screws.
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Believe it or not the partial shoal keel performs superbly. I can turn quite well, and gives me enough lateral resistance even during
lower windspeed to sail upwind over 45 degrees. Since the empty hull weighs only 34 lbs, the canoe sails very well, and pretty fast.
I also found out, that the partial shoal keel really saves my canoe from underwater dammages. I took the canoe to St. George Island,
Florida to sail it, and found that at low-tide I hit the oysterbeds quite hard a few times, at high speeds. The as soon as
the shoal keel hits the ground, it halts the canoe. The grinding sounds terrible at first, but quite nice to realize that the boat does not
get dammaged, because it got hung up by the keel. On my transparent saiboat, in such event the centerboard
is usually kicked up and the boat is still driven by the sail, and its momentum, to its demise ending up with a few rips here and there.
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Over all, when I build another sailing canoe/boat, I will definitelly use a partial shoal keel again. Although my turning radious
is a but bigger than that of a comparable size boat with a centerboard, it is still withing the length of the boat, 14'. Since I
am not out there to race, the spacious interior and light weight more than makes up for any loss in turning speed.
My pictures still show the canoe sailing with a green tarp experimental sliding gunter sail. The sail ended up working OK, despite
the few major wrinkles in it, since I did not take the gunter angle into account when cutting the sail shape. In any case, I could
not drop the sliding gunter sail fast enough near the harbor at high windspeeds, and it became a hazard and a bad sail as it kept
flapping in the strong wind. This later made me go with a lug sail, which is a breeze to raise and lower with a single line.
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It took me about a month to build the canoe, in the afternoons, after work and on the weekends. Since the boat is exclusively lashed
without glue or screws, with the exception of the rubrail, it could have been built a lot faster. Lashing each stringer with four turns,
took a lot of time, but was still well worth it as it looks very nice. In fact under heavy wind, the canoe creaks like a basket under heavy load, and
is a very nice feeling as the canoe comes to life, giving a bit of way to the pressures of the sail and the waves.
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For the skin I used sports nylon that I bought from a local fabric store and covered it with Varathane (floor finish) from Home Depot.
Several coats will do the trick; however, after heavy use, it needs a coat here and there.
I wet the nylon in a bucket of hot water to let it stretch out, then draped it over the canoe. I tacked the sides to the gunwale, then
sewed up the ends, while making sure that it stayed wet all along, spraying it once in a while. Once I was done, I took the canoe
out to the summer sun to dry. In about 5-10 minutes, as the nylon dried it shrank itself really tight. Then as I mentioned
before, a few coats of Varathane sealed the fabric.
| Overall, I am happy with the canoe, it sails well, very light, and literally, I walk down to the marina with the canoe on my
shoulder and the the sail and paddle in my other hand. |
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Overall, I am happy with the canoe, it sails well, very light, and literally, I walk down to the marina with the canoe on my
shoulder and the the sail and paddle in my other hand. The translucent sides, light weight and unconventional shoal are usually
a showstopper for everyone there, taking time to ask a dozen or so questions. It is really fun to see a 24' yacht to come to a full
stop just to ask the usual questions, of how my canoe was built!
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