18' Grumman Canoe sailing
 

The other post about canoe sailing got me thinking. I grew up with a
Grumman canoe and still consider canoeing to be as natural as riding a
bike. Its an old 18' Grumman Aluminum flat bottom canoe, nearly
indestructible. I always wanted to use it to explore salt marshes and
also sail it in VERY shallow water. The other canoe sailing post
gives me some ideas, thanks

Parallax ) writes:
The other post about canoe sailing got me thinking. I grew up with a
Grumman canoe and still consider canoeing to be as natural as riding a
bike. Its an old 18' Grumman Aluminum flat bottom canoe, nearly
indestructible. I always wanted to use it to explore salt marshes and
also sail it in VERY shallow water. The other canoe sailing post
gives me some ideas, thanks

I've sailed one of my small 7.5 ft boats made from a single sheet of
plywood (Loonie on my website) the entire length of a shallow winding
beaver creek without a rudder and only had to resort to the paddle once.
It was a fun thing to do. I've also worked that tiny boat upwind on fairly
narrow rivers. I have another boat (Dogskiff) which is a flat bottom 15 ft
plywood canoe with the back 25% cut off and replaced by a transom. I've
often worked my way upwind on the Rideau River which is wider without a
rudder in this boat.

If the saiilng rig were not so cumberson I think more people would take
sails on canoe camping trips to save paddling against a wind. Fur traders
and natives often carried sails on long trips. I've read of a native
family comming down the shore of Hudson's Bay in modern times in a big
frieghter canoe surfing along under sail. Carrying a sail would be a good
strategy because wind makes paddling difficult and sailing possible. Lack
of wind makes sailing impossible and paddling easy. Hence paddle and sail
would be a good combination.

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I couldn't agree more. I'm working on getting mine balanced and considering
a rudder because I want to sail with different weight arrangements (ie,
kids). Upwind is my challenge.

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

Parallax ) writes:
The other post about canoe sailing got me thinking. I grew up with a
Grumman canoe and still consider canoeing to be as natural as riding a
bike. Its an old 18' Grumman Aluminum flat bottom canoe, nearly
indestructible. I always wanted to use it to explore salt marshes and
also sail it in VERY shallow water. The other canoe sailing post
gives me some ideas, thanks

I've sailed one of my small 7.5 ft boats made from a single sheet of
plywood (Loonie on my website) the entire length of a shallow winding
beaver creek without a rudder and only had to resort to the paddle once.
It was a fun thing to do. I've also worked that tiny boat upwind on fairly
narrow rivers. I have another boat (Dogskiff) which is a flat bottom 15 ft
plywood canoe with the back 25% cut off and replaced by a transom. I've
often worked my way upwind on the Rideau River which is wider without a
rudder in this boat.

If the saiilng rig were not so cumberson I think more people would take
sails on canoe camping trips to save paddling against a wind. Fur traders
and natives often carried sails on long trips. I've read of a native
family comming down the shore of Hudson's Bay in modern times in a big
frieghter canoe surfing along under sail. Carrying a sail would be a good
strategy because wind makes paddling difficult and sailing possible. Lack
of wind makes sailing impossible and paddling easy. Hence paddle and sail
would be a good combination.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community
network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned

I have 18 fot grumman and made a sailing rig many years ago:
stiff mast of electrical 1 1/2 conduit fixed by plate with locator
pins to plate on floor just ahead of bow seat and yoke attached to
gunnels, also using pins to locate at holes in gunnel. lateen rig with
pulley to raise and lower sail on stub mast.

2 leeboards of tapered 1/2 ply with wide flat washer for adjusting
tilt. these screwed to 2x3 with bloocks on end to increas bering
surface.

rudder hung on A frame with a hinge leaf sandwidged at the point of A
between two long arms of A. the 2 arms were carved to fit the shape of
canoe so that it was locked from horizontal movement, when clamped at
the cross of Aframe clamped to gunnel just back of stern seat.

Had about 45 square feet of sail tied to very light 1/2 conduit with 2
interlocked eye bolts tieing the end point of sail.

On 26 Aug 2004 11:49:14 -0700, (Parallax)
wrote:

The other post about canoe sailing got me thinking. I grew up with a
Grumman canoe and still consider canoeing to be as natural as riding a
bike. Its an old 18' Grumman Aluminum flat bottom canoe, nearly
indestructible. I always wanted to use it to explore salt marshes and
also sail it in VERY shallow water. The other canoe sailing post
gives me some ideas, thanks