In article ,
Yanie wrote:
Someone recently mentioned to me the idea of a long river trip, and we
were debating different types of craft that we could use. Somehow I
became hooked on the idea of joining two canoes into a catamaran, as
in the linked diagram. The spars and crossbeams would all detach when
there is no wind, and be readily assembled when the wind picks up
again. I've seen plenty of articles and posts about different rigs for
a single canoe, but none for joining two.

I assume someone has thought of this before, so what are the
disadvantages? Is the idea feasible?

It has been thought of before, to take the Polynesians across oceans.

http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/pvs/Hokuleaparts.html
http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/pvs/onlinevisuals.html

The sailing canoes pictured on the above web site are considerably
larger than your concept, although scaled down versions can certainly
be made. But some of the design elements of Polynesian canoes are
solutions to some of the same problems that you may be looking at,
like how to keep the rectangle of canoes and crossbeams rectangular,
how to absorb shock when a wave hits one of the two canoes, and how
to keep too much water from splashing into the canoes.

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Timothy J. Lee
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