"riverman" wrote in message ...
"Graham" wrote in message
om...
Since I last posted a question about sail sticks, I met a guy who gets
the wind to tow a canoe by attaching a kite to the canoe using heavy
(trolling - woven??) fishing line. He claims that the canoe is much
more stable than having a mast that could cause the canoe to flip in a
cross gust.

Has anyone else heard of this technique?

Not specifically, but I used to use the rainfly of my NorthFace VE24 (a
standard dome tent) as a sail. It worked great when the wind was from
directly astern, but if it was off even by 15 or 20 degrees, it was
particularly hard to keep the boat on track. I used to tie the lower two
lines to the front thwart, and the upper two lines together to make a sling
that I just held behind my head. It kept my hands free, and I could trim the
sail by leaning forward, back or to the sides. I once used this setup to
sail about 5 miles across a lake to an island, and landed exactly on target.

--riverman


The Kite thing has been done in a kayak , can't see why it would not
work in a canoe.