"William R. Watt" wrote in message
...

P.C. Ford ) writes:

Very important. With such a tiny draft movement with the boat can even
make the boat come about. A traditional boat in the Northeast,
(Thousand Islands area, I'm spacing the name.) was sailed without a
rudder. Coming about was accomplished by movement within the boat.

So loading the canoe and moving the people is part of sailing the canoe.
With kids I've learned you lean one way and point the other as you say "look
at that".

I've seen photos and a description of the annual St Lawrence skiff races.
They were long narrow rowing boats with auxilliary sails. During the
races the boat were tacked without rudder or paddle by heeling to leeward
and moving forward to depress the bow which I guess might lift the stern
shortening the waterline length to ease pivoting the hull.

So loading involves leaving room to move yourself or others to steer. This
is getting more interesting all the time. The canoe has three cross members
and two fixed seats (not used when sailing). I like the idea of having a
crew to help steer. I'm going to teach a whole new generation because it is
not going to be a lost art.


Good luck with your experiments. Sailing canoes were very popular in
the 19th century. Don't understand why they are not more popular now.
Myself, I would rather sail than paddle!!

I appreciate the variety sailing adds to a canoe. Carrying a sailing rig
in a boat which is portaged is a nuisance which I try to overcome with the
simplest most compact removable rig I can dream up. Paddling allows a
person to look around which is nice along the shore and on rivers, and to
read and run fast water. Sailing requires constant attention to the sail
due to changing strength and direction of the wind. Playing the wind is a
nice change from paddling and it is more insteresting on open water where
paddling in a wind is both tiring and boring. A terrific combination IMHO.

I find that going out on the same water most of the time I don't see much
new and interesting along the shore and tend to do more sailing. However I
do like to explore creeks and rivers under paddle power.

My biggest issue is getting the time and interest of the kids to go out
exploring. I've used food and try to make it fun but competition is tough
(going to the YMCA or local amusement park instead). I hope that the
excitement of sailing will get them. We got towed upwind on our local lake
and they enjoyed that but I saw it as a failure of my ability to sail
upwind, hence all my questions. We do paddle or float down the Little
Miami River. We don't have two way rivers (without alot of tracking and
hard paddling) around here.

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