Posted on February 24th,2007Of course,Gavin Atkin over at intheboatshed.net has posted like 50 times since my last one,and there is what I am coming to realize is the usual array of interesting stuff in there. I was particularly interested to see Gavin’s discussion of sailing canoes. He begins:
One of the biggest surprises Ive had during the short life of intheboatshed.net has been the level of interest in sailing canoes and canoe yawls:posts on these attract more attention than almost any others.
I agree that there is a small,burning need in a group of people to get more of a taste for traditional small sailing craft. At Chine bLog,I get lots of interest in my discussions of Iain Oughtred craft. Of course that could be because the good man has no web site and there are only a handful where one can find much of anything….
As my two-to-three long-time readers know,I am fully in the camp of people have a thing for boats like these sailing canoes. So it was with much excitement that I found that Gavin had unearthed a set of lines drawings for a number of sailing canoes from various eras. On a quick glance,some really good stuff. This is courtesy of,as far as I can tell,the Canadian arm of the International Canoe Federation’s site. I am eager to explore this more,but here is a nice sample:
This would be Wren,by Rushton,always a nice place to start. Here are the lines:
Good find,Gavin.
Incidentally,the International Canoe is this insane-looking craft,if you didn’t know:
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For many years I was so obsessed about boat design I used to draw boats on every piece of paper that came my way. It got so bad I stopped with the vow that the next time I draw a boat on a piece of paper –I’ll build it.
In the end it was American sailing canoes from the 1870′s that were the inspiration.
So I designed my BETH sailing canoe.
http://www.storerboatplans.com/Beth/beth.html
Which worked very well and looked very pretty. It also allowed my to experiment with traditional rigs –it was a balance lug ketch/yawl.
People often try to update these rigs by modernising them. I’d agree as far as one thing –get a spectra halyard –the yard will stay put –day in,day out.
But most of the traditional information is spot on –for example the halyard system from Dixon Kemp’s “seamanship”is perfect.
I have an article on that here:
http://www.storerboatplans.com/Faq/tradrigperformance.html