Wind up

With gusts up to 20 knots I went on an afternoon 'umbrella sail' . The tide way way out and the shallow water was breaking up into a onshore layer of white caps which made sailing difficult. I can sail but the frothy waters tended to break upon me.

A wet ride.

This was the strongest wind I've 'sailed' and the gusts at times felt like my arm was ready to be wrenched from its socket. The inconvenience of my limb  as the mast meant that with my right arm on the tiller and my left holding up the umbrella against the wind my body was turned out to sea  toward Moreton Island for 4 kilometres for the sake of a pace just above walking speed -- around 3-4 knots.

Navigation was easy. My two rudders seem to be a design  indulgence as the windward side one is the active device while the one to the lee is unnecessary, aside from its limited use as a leeboard. If I can anchor the umbrella some how -- and I did experiment en route -- I'd have an easier time of it. 

The point being it was not a comfortable journey. 

This begs the question of what now?

The paddleski isn't going to make much more than a barge under sail.  That's OK so long as I can complete my journeys in some style and comfort . So holding the umbrella before the wind has a short use by date.

Bill Mantis: sailing his rig

While it is convenient to unfold an umbrella when the wind's up I don't think the sail area is large enough to give me as much traction on the water to scoot me along such that the ergonomics is hugely superior to paddling. So I need a bona fide mast and sail.

To that end I'm waiting on details of  a lanteen rig designed by Bill Mantis which may suit my needs while supplying me with a DIY challenge to increase my sailing knowledge . 

There is only so much I can do with my present beamy craft but I  aim to push the boundaries.

For the time being the paddleski floats 'under sail' without a hint of capsize which suggests to me that I could hypothetically stack on a lot of sail. Since I am negotiating the rudder question with verve, that only leaves the mast and rigging -- especially stepping the mast/attaching it --  and the leeboard  to experiment with. 

I need the Mantis package to give me a format to work with.

En route I'm learning about  sailing the sea -- from the ground up, so to speak. 

Rigging up : rudders and an umbrella

I may be extremely new to sailing the seas but I appreciate the challenge that centuries of mariners have  embraced.

How do you  move yourself forward through the force of the wind with little effort on your part across a watery surface?

Since I begun my nautical existence with an established shape -- as in boat profile -- my paddleski  -- how do I bend the shape so that it does something it wasn't designed to do?

This isn't supposed to be an option: you should not be able to sail a cheap plastic 2.4 beamy sit-on-top 'kayak' with catamaran hull -- despite its dinghy-like impression.

The story so far...

The first thing  I had to do was get myself an umbrella. (This of course assumes you are as eccentric as I.)

Golf umbrellas make useful small craft sails. They have a billow shape and catch the wind. And some, like the Gustbuster, can take a lot of wind before they start turning inside out or collapsing. They are also a lot cheaper ($80) off the rack than a commercial kayak sailing rig (>$250).

So I got myself an umbrella....only to find that despite my forward motion, my paddleski preferred to come about rather than continue to move forward.

Research suggsts that the preference to come about is built into the design of kayaks as a means to plough through or over waves while also facilitating the forward dynamic of the paddling with its left/right cadence. The fulcrum is moved back towards the stern so that the front automatially rises. This will impact on how well the craft tracks but the longer the kayak, and the stretch of its tail, the less of a problem this will be...so long as you don't have a short stubby boat like mine with no tail at all, just a bum. 

It was clear that I needed some sort of rudder, leeboard or skeg mechanism to hold myself on course -- ie: front ways. I also needed to be able to turn  left or right  as preference may dictate. 

I suspect that because my craft is so short I may be able to get away with running my rudders behind the stern and at shallow depth precisely because there's  a ghost part of the kayak not there as it is cut off  before it lengthened into a tail. A crocodile without a tail.

So after a few experiments I now use two 'rudders'  one on each side of the hull-- ie: on each hull. Their curved stem or tiller is made from rods canibalised from a pair of crutches ($2 at the local op shop) and the 'blade' is a plastic kitchen cutting board trimmed to shape. (Another $2.) The curve in the crutches stem fits snugly against the hull of the paddleski. 

You'll note how cheap replacement parts will be.

The whole lot is held together with won't rot or rust,  plastic cable/zippy ties.

Ruddering

Trials at sea suggests that the 'rudder' on the windward side is the preferred and active one used to navigate with and hold course so that the craft faces where I intend it to. The passive rudder, if in the water, functions like a leeboard or skeg. To navigate flexibly, rather than swap rudders, you operate each rudder depending on where you want to go and where the wind is coming from. But  in general use you just hold the active rudder steady as she goes...balancing your forward motion with the pull from the umbrella sail.

I was able to aim for a succession of crab pot buoys while out sailing yesterday and managed in each case to 'touch base' with them while sailing across the wind before moving on. 

So the system works. Because the rudders aren't very deep I can still use them in shallow water  and because the arm/tiller is held in place by a simple pivot ring, I can raise and lower the depth at which the blade works just as the blade can bounce along the sandy bottom in very shallow water without breaking off because of the play in the arm.

This means that I can sail in very shallow water -- eg: < 30 cms -- over sand banks or when coming ashore. The rudder blades can also be pivoted up and stored on the rear deck when not in use or during portage.

So far so good. Pity about the light winds we are having -- mostly around and under 10 knots -- as the challenge has been sailing lite. 

Two handed sailing

The umbrella sailor does need to serve as the  ship's mast and hang onto the umbrella while the wind does its business. With the other hand on the tiller you aren't offered many nose scratching moments. While I'm sure I'll be able to lock the tiller onto autopilot some how (or navigate with my knee) , trimming or taking down the sails  is simply a business of letting down an umbrella. To rest your mast/umbrella arm in a stiff breeze may be cause enough to tack just  so that you can change hands. 

But in general use --in 10 knot breezes at least -- it is comfortable enough to rest your umbrella arm on your knee while the tiller requires less  attention than a car steering wheel. 

Just like riding a bicycle....

Since the Gustbuster can handle gusts of up to 47.79 knots (88.5 kph)  the real question is what  is your arm's wind tunnel rating?

Within these parameters I don't think there can be many other initiatives open to me as umbrellas are not sails nor are they designed for craft propulsion and will only  work well for  downwind sailing. At best they are a spinaker. The current exercise is overwhelmingly about controlling  navigation while 'under umbrella sail'. Rigging up is easy. I can paddle where ever I want  to go and begin sailing on impulse  by simply dropping the rudders over board and opening up the umbrella. 

Easy. Not a lot of clobber  to carry on board.

The future under sail

I'll be using this rig to skill myself  up  and learn how the wind and water works together. Nonetheless, I've begun to think through my further sailing options and am exploring by what ways and means I may be  be able to rig up a lateen sail -- as used by the Pacific Proa and the Egyptian Dhow -- made up from cheap Polytarp. 

The question is how do I mount the mast and mast step? And make the mast from what material? It also nags me that the craft may be far too stubby to be able to  tolerate the pull of a mast and sail... I'm also assuming that my beamy cat like hull will protect me from roll over if I unfurl a larger sail area than  what's on offer from a golf umbrella. 

Paddleski outing

I took the paddleski out for a spin on the local lake. The lake is not open as it is surrounded by housing so the wind gusts are uneven as I tried to sail with my umbrella.  Navigation while 'sailing' was a problem as the craft pulls either left or right despite its catamaran hull. Leeboarding may indeed be in order, the sooner the better -- and some form of rudder that's not a paddle. Nonetheless, when the rain came bucketing down I kept comfortably dry under my large golf umbrella...I stretched out and floated among the elements.

Taking the opportunity to test my gear in deeper waters, I pitched my newly made sea anchor (materials: 4 shopping bags) over the side and it worked  a treat. It was anchored by big bag volume.

So there I was, paddling too and fro in semi circuits of the pondage, between rain squalls with only my paddle and the wash of diving stingrays breaking the surface of the water.

The boat cloak and umbrella sailing canoe

Halkett boat 'under sail'

The Halkett Boat may not be a craft known all over for its versatility and style. But as an invention it's up there among the many creative canoe experiments of the 19th century.

A Halkett boat is a type of lightweight inflatable boat designed by Lt Peter Halkett (1820–1885) during the 1840s. Halkett had long been interested in the difficulties of travelling in the Canadian Arctic, and the problems involved in designing boats light enough to be carried over arduous terrain, but robust enough to be used in extreme weather conditions.

Halkett's first design was a collapsible and inflatable boat made of rubber-impregnated cloth. When deflated, the hull of the boat could be worn as a cloak, the oar used as a walking stick, and the sail as an umbrella. This was followed by a two-man craft that was small enough to fit into a knapsack, and when deflated served as a waterproof blanket.

Among my 19th century design  favorites from the canoe-ing golden age is the paper canoe --  especially  the inspiring , Voyage of the Paper Canoe by Nathaniel Bishop, 1878. ( a great read). There's even a site dedicated to boats made out of paper -- The Paper Boat Page 

This web page is primarily devoted to an obscure subject in the history of technology: the manufacture of full size boats from paper during the later half of the 19th century. These are not toy boats, but boats people could ride around in; racing shells, canoes and rowboats. 

Today many student engineers get wet by designing and building cardboard canoes as part of their 'prac'. I own a copy of a manual written by Dave Friant which details construction of a cardboard boat (pictured above right).

But umbrellas...? Umbrellas as sailing rigs are still the province of eccentrics. So when I came upon the Halkett -- a design that really thinks outside the square hull -- I was impressed.

So I'm working on my Umbrella Sailing resources.

• My Umbrella sailing bookmarks 
• Umbrella sailing bookmark archive 

In terms of content, the best discussion is available from Jay Heath who 'sails' the lakes of  South Dakota by umbrella. The main points to note about umbrellas as small boat sail rigs are:

1. They are readymade rigs that can be folded and unfolded in seconds
2. The strongest umbrellas-- like the Gust Buster -- can withstand wind gust of over 85 kmh
3. They are so much cheaper than any other  kayak sailing option
4. They require no refitting to mount the sail on board.
5. Unlike kites or fixed mask sails, umbrellas are easily furled when the wind turns nasty.
6. You can always use an umbrella to keep the rain or sun off your person when out and about messing in boats.

The question of 'sailing' with an umbrella in everyday activity is something I am going to master. I'm also fascinated by the prospect of exploring how well you could sail with an umbrella -- and not only downwind --  if you utilized some form of  leeboard setup --   especially this crude but simple option:

The leeboard is an aluminum street sign 2 feet square. The corners are round and there are two holes in the top edge near each corner. I tied cord to these holes and tied the other end of the cords to the canoe's center thwart. I wrapped some innertube around that to make sure it wouldn't slip.
When I tack and turn the canoe so the wind is on the same side as the leeboard it swings up.
I pick up the leeboard and toss it into the water on the other side of the canoe.
The leeboard should be just in front of the center thwart to balance this sail well.
Then it's very easy to steer with the paddle.
When things are right the canoe will turn into the wind when you pull the paddle out of the water.
You'll have an easy time steering and water pressure will hold the paddle against the leeward side of the canoe. This set of conditions is called moderate "weather helm"

So as I wait upon my Gust Buster to arrive  with excitement and expectancy as I monitor the winds , I pass on these wise words: " Umbrella sailing: keeps you off the streets."

To be continued....

Umbrella Sailing to go

The dye is cast: after spending no end of research time exploring the sailing options for a short, beamy paddleski in the conditions of prevailing onshore winds I have finally opted to go with an umbrella.

Is that eccentric enough?

“It is the habitual carriage of the umbrella that is the stamp of Respectability. The umbrella has become the acknowledged index of social position. . . . Crusoe was rather a moralist than a pietist, and his leaf-umbrella is as fine an example of the civilized mind striving to express itself under adverse circumstances as we have ever met with.”
---Robert Louis Stevenson

While I always carry a short collapsible umbrella, I've been bidding for a GustBuster golf umbrella online and finally  got one at a price that is many times less than rigging any other kayak or canoe sailing another way. The Gust Buster (see image below)will not turn inside out when blown from beneath by high winds so it is even stronger than many sail rig options.

...and without the complicated and heavy engineering involved in rigging for a day before the wind.

Now I face the challenge of seeing if the craft will tack--  and so this is where I begin experimenting with leeboards  and the new sea anchor I am making up out of shopping bags. 

Drag is important because  resistance on one side or the other  will decide where you get  to go (as distinct from around in circles, overboard or left rather than right).

I was keen on kitesailing for a time and did my homework , but kites need to be launched and retrieved and will only work down wind. And the bigger the kite -- as in kite surfing -- you need two hands  on and a craft that will jump about with the tug and drag.

Can you do more with an umbrella?

You can keep the sun off your head and the rain off your body. As to whether you can gibe or tack or whatever beyond simply sailing down wind, that remains  to be rig experimented with. The literature on this point is...slim.

So come April when the winds here move from North Easterlies to Westerlies and start blowing offshore, maybe I can get the wind behind me and the sea beneath my feet...and bottom.

Of course umbrellas are simple pull up/pull down devices that, at a pinch, you let go of. But paddling, steering and umbrella-ing is going to require a bit of  ergonomic rework. But since I have plenty of deck space -- because I'm on a beamy paddleski -- I am sure to have a few options to explore while  mounting experiments with an anchor or leeboard to promote synergy.

And if it rains, I won't get wet.

“Let a smile be your umbrella, and you'll end up with a face full of rain.”
--George Carlin

Mibo scootering 12 kilometres to the bus stop

Went out and about on the Mibo C(K)omfort Folding scooter after the recent handlebar refit.Calculation  suggests that I raked up 12.2 kilometres, from Sandgate railway station (where I got off with my scooter) to a bus stop on the Redcliffe Peninsular.

I dropped in on Kite Power en route and at the other end of my scootering, on Anzac Avenue, I caught a afternoon bus back home by simply folding the thing and boarding.

That I could notch up a good 12 kms despite pushing against a stiff north easterly wind (maybe 15 knots) suggests that you can do  a lot on a Mibo.

[But you cannot crouch into the wind for aerodynamic adaption...]

Sandgate was awash with cyclists in their fashion clobber. Many parked a la sucking cafe latte , so in my usual about town gear -- nothing sporty at all-- I seemed a tad out of cycling place. With my everyday 10 litre knapsack, shorts, cotton shirt and pair of Dunlop Volleys   I was not the fashion plate.

Not even hybridised.

Umbrella Sailing

But at KitePower I got to talking about sailing a paddleski with the Kayakite in mind and the ruling is that I best not bother going down that route. Given that where I live and paddle suffers prevailing onshore easterlies -- and offshore easterlies only in the Winter months -- me and a kite aint gonna get anywhere special.

Better, we concluded, to setlle on -- an umbrella for sailing. 

However, kite fishing....Now there's an option!

Paddleski options: the Finn Gadget -- stability and function

Although I may  not actually launch myself upon the waters because of all those factors I touched on in my last paddleski post , I am still fascinated by the option of -- or the chance to --   mess about in boats.

I haven't owned a boat since I was a teenager. Nothing big mind you -- a lumbering wooden paddleski -- but I loved paddling the thing, surfing with it, touring and spending my Summers atop its hard flat wooden surface.

And now, I want to relive my youth but  with certain caveats in place....My backside is much older... and more worn... and (let's be nautical) beamier  for instance.

Here on this blog you'll find a lot of discussion about the Thuyền thúng Coracle which I'd be constructing now if I wasn't moving house. The thing is that while the Vietnamese coracle may suit the Nudgee inlet on Moreton Bay near here-- it won't suit the two main environments I have in mind to boat about in at Beachmere -- the river and the tidal mud flats.

While any old boat would do, any second hand sit on,  I reckon there's a boating niche there that warrants  my utmost engagement.

This is where the Finn Gadget comes into the navigational  picture.

The Finn Gadget

The Finn Gadget is  a 'sit on top' kayak. -- at least that's its classification.  But  in shape, beaminess, broad catamaran like hull, the Gadget reminds me more of a coracle than a kayak (to be precise, the Ironbridge Coracle. With a great carrying capacity -- 130 kgm -- and short length -- 2.4 metres --  it's a well  engineered boat!

As the folk at Finn Kayaks tell me, " to sit around in comfort and stability (in all conditions – we’ve tried it extensively) it really is  comfortable."

Ah, comfort....

If you partake of the (sea) kayaking milieu -- and it's a big deal here in South East Qld -- you can go high tech, high price and craft-long  very quickly in ratcheting $100 segments.

But I'm after limited use window, very specific -- shallow waters , river mouth and upstream  with a preference for getting to places I can't walk to and keeping my appendages free of the pearly whites of any passing Bull Shark.

Sailing, Flat Bottoms... and Leeboards?

The more I contemplate the Gadget -- terrible name isn't it? -- the more interesting is its design. I think I can also look forward to sailing it  -- perhaps initially by umbrella!  This option has also revived my ongoing interest in leeboards., but with its cat hull the Gadget may not need to be leeboarded.

More's the engineering pity!

But leeboards are ideal for sailing acraft  in  shallow waters so that it won't capsize and Beachmere does its waters really shallow. (And if you run over a Dugong, the boards swing back as a leeboard  pivots.)

The other features of the Gadget that excited me  are its flat bottom -- handy if you are dragging the beast over mudflats -- and its lightness -- 18 kgm. I'm imagining myself also using it like some  river barg dragging it behind me as a cart while I wade the shallows fishing for Whiting, Bream and Flathead. Porting the boat the 700 metres from home to the beach  should be easy -- so long as the tide is in when I get there..

I already have a very large bike cart.

Then when I board I get myself a roomy seat and maybe I can even raise that seat's profile  a bit with  some interior redesign. I can store my  box of fishing stuff in the boot -- it's like a car hatch back -- and paddle off into the big blue.

The Gadget aint gonna track as well as a longer and less beamier kayak or surfski  but if I don't want to be in a hurry -- and a little bit of waddling is OK -- I reckon the Gadget and me will hit it off. Thats' the kickbiker in me talkling:' The more hurry the less speed”

Great design job, Finn.

I aint got me one yet, but my thoughts are as you see...and I keep on thinking them.

Messing about in boats : Padldeski options

Regular visitors here may recall that I was planning to build a Vietnamese style coracle for estuary fishing. Well you can forget all about that. Because we are moving to a different locale the boat option has to change also.

I have been researching other means to float upon the water. Given the plethora of options -- especially in the kayak marketplace -- for now I'm chasing a sit on craft. at the cheapest price I can find.

I hate sit in kayaks and canoes don't belong on the sea. So sit on seems kosher. But why kayak when my background is as a paddleski-er?

Yep. That's how I spent my youth -- paddleski-ing the waters of Port Philip Bay off Sandringham. I surfed with my 12 feet 6 inch  'board'. Dived from it. Expeditioned with it. In the decades since I've yearned to get back upon the water just so.

It was a structure of wood that weighed one helluva lot . I got a retired carpenter and boat builder to make it for me.

Since I have done my homework -- kickbiking and kettlebelling -- I think the old bod may be up to paddling  and taking the waters once again. This time in something a little lighter perhaps.

But why a paddleski?

There is some confusion with the term, 'paddleski'. In Australia (and South Africa) long boards are called surfskis, paddleskis, or paddle boards. In the US these sit ons are synonymous with kayaks or are called waveskis. Now that long boards are back -- and even stand up long boarding/surfing with  a paddle -- the distinctions  within the genera is no longer an easy call.

This is complicated by the different functions and water environments the various boards and kayaks are deployed for. The plethora of shapes, sizes and designs will make you heady as will the prices!

But for now, I've settled upon a 10 feet 7 inches long 'surfski' from Northside Fibregalss which happens to be located across the creek at the end of my street. The item is pictured above.

Before I proceed we are going to trial the craft at the Nudgee Beach estuary. It is an older design but if it suits me -- my weight especially -- I hope to make deckside adaptions for fishing with handlines.  I  wanted a craft which can be paddled some distance as well as being stable enough to position me for an afternoon's casting.

When you drop your ass to a flat deck it's always going to have a comfort levy but I'm planning on creating a raised seat to sit on -- maybe even a blow up like this one at right used on  the Paddleski Seaeagle inflatable.

And maybe I'll sail -- initially by using an umbrella!

But sailing a surfski! A seat on a surfski! It's anathema! Nonetheless in Durban , South Africa,  the paddle ski club deploys a chunky craft with an enormous seating arrangement. It's like a lounge chair!

I do have other options --especially  given that way off Western Australia has such a rich surfski culture which is less focused on surfing the waves like their kin on the  east coast.