If you yearn to sail -- as I do -- without the dead hand of cost, storage, portage, and haulage -- think 'canoe'.
Yes: a canoe that you sail.
Why you'd want to sail something you paddle is not the same as making a silk purse out of a sow's ear . Sailing a canoe is sweet logic.
"If the wind pipes up, you sail; if it dies, you paddle. If a storm unexpectedly threatens , you get off the water and pack up your gear within minutes.If the weather unexpectedly clears , you can make a spontaneous decision and be out on the water in minutes."
The above quote is taken from William Mantis' little book, The $50, 5 Hour Canoe Sail Rig, which has just arrived in my down under nautical hands from Florida in the US of A.
While sailing a canoe may seem like a great idea -- when you come to think about it -- canoes are temperamental craft if the wind's up. While canoes and their sails peopled the South Pacific, certain adaptions are in order if you want to propel a narrow, keelles boat with pointed ends by wind power alone.
What Mantis offers is a cheap and easy way to do just that.
I say this because in my investigations into how to rig a canoe for sailing I soon realised that all I was earning was headache and confusion. The seeming sweet logic wasn't so sweet afterall. And designing a sailing rig for my eccentric craft -- which I call a paddleski because it is half way not a canoe nor a kayak -- seemed a forlorn quest.
But Mantis's rig design steers me back to sweet logic.
Whether I can sail my craft with it (my supposition is nonetheless very positive as I'm a determined wannabe ) remains to be seen, but I finally have a template to work from and if I cannot sail with this rig holding sail aloft my little boat wasn't ordained by King Neptune to sail.
(And finding that out won't bankrupt me no matter how crude my DIY skills.)
$50 and 5 hours!
While you purchase the book in order to access the design, William Mantis packages his rig with a discourse on the history and efficiencies of the lateen sail and some broad philosophical observations on canoe sailing. It's a sort of Zen and the Art of Canoe Sailing( for Dummies).
Suits me to a T.
So I got myself the manual. I got plenty of that old timey canoe sailing religion on board.
All I have to do is build the thing....
