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| Half way through the painting |
I finally -- well, almost -- finished the painting of the canoe.
In deference to what-may-be the fickleness of modern house paints I'm going to wait the best part of a week before I immerse the hull in the sea.
Launch. Trials --you know, paddling about hither and yon. Getting the cut of its jib...
"Thats' the way to do it!"
The garish colours are the traditional Punch and Judy colours so this is a carnival or cartoon boat. Out at sea you'll see it coming from a long way off. Yellow against the blue sea.
And still not rigged ready to go: the sail.
After I get a feel for the craft I'll transfer across my old sail rig and canoe sail the craft. Given the size of the sail I have I expect to be able to sail OK without being dunked. Depending on the conditions of course.
I love my sail. The rig works fine: tacking -- even against the wind... But I think I can 'add more sail' to my mast and I want to change its pitch so that the paddler in the front of the canoe isn't cramped or expelled from their seat because of the sail foot.
So I'm thinking proa sail.
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| Gary Dierking's excellent proas |
Traditional Proa sailing is complicated by the pivoting of the mast which can be rocked back and forth depending on the prevailing wind direction. But if you don't pivot what interests me is the way the sail runs away from the deck and its bottom foot is not pitched parallel to the water. Methinks: more head space under neath. More room to move about.Better vision.
Outrigger
Of course if I add more sail I may become a bit tipsy . I could learn to sail with that in mind...or/and I could add an outrigger.
I've just come across a simple outrigger design which is in my crude carpentry reach: three bits of wood strapped together.
This is my ideal. The comments section explain the rig in more detail.
So what I need -- and in effect all the traditional outrigger sailing canoes of Oceania are built this way -- is two long branches that bend enough so that ama (the outrigger float) runs parallel to the canoe hull at the water line.
You need to be able to dismantle the rig for portage -- so you strap it together -- or for swapping the outrigger to the other side of the canoe as my mast will be fixed at the bow.
