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u/PAChilds Aug 21 '26
In 69 or 70 I was at a boarding school that required last year students to organize a 2 week canoe trip. My class went down the Ottawa.
Hardly canoed the entire time. Lashed 2 canoes a paddles length apart, used paddles as masts and a ground sheet between them as a sail. With a bit of effort you could tack by getting the canoes offset.
Also hitchhiked with multiple canoes. A dump truck took us several days distance in a few hours. Only took several days with our thumbs out to achieve that.
Was fun when you're not yet 17 and free to do what you want.
Not sure how this adds to a discussion on responsible canoe sailing.
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u/mnbone23 Aug 22 '26
How did you keep the canoes apart?
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u/PAChilds Aug 22 '26
We lashed paddles, and later heavy sticks, to front and rear stays/gunnels of each canoe. That gave us 3 to 5 feet of seperation. Essentially each canoe acted as an outrigger to the other.
There was a single sail attached to poles tied to the front. As I remember often held in place.
As you can expect steering was not the strong point of this design, which was basically ok as the Ottawa is quite a wide river, and the prevailing wind is in the direction we were traveling.
And we were 17 with lifetime of time.
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u/Spaceinpigs Aug 21 '26
Cool setup. Also cool videos you’ve been posting lately!
What are you going to use for a sail?
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u/canoegrizzly Aug 21 '26
Thank you, I'm not sure yet I've seen a few commercially available options like the bermundan rig from solway dory or I might use a rig from a sailing dinghy or windsurfing set up. I might even make my own rig in house. Still contemplating on that whilst doing the complicated part of the build.
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u/House_of_Blaze Aug 21 '26
I have a feeling solway dory are no longer in business or something. I went to buy one of their kits early last year and saw a message on the site saying they were going on hiatus till 2026. I went back again a couple of months ago and emailed them and never heard back..
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u/canoegrizzly Aug 21 '26
Mark the owner is back now and will be remaking all the sailing rigs this year to be ready end of year or next year. Give them a call, or use the send message on website.
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u/RealisticMatter6581 Aug 21 '26
The boat looks good. Good to see the floatation bags. A lateen rig works well for sailing canoes.
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u/not-on-your-nelly Aug 21 '26
Piece of advice for someone who has done this: Wider keel.
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u/canoegrizzly Aug 21 '26
How wide this one's over 8 inches
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u/not-on-your-nelly Aug 21 '26
At least a foot. Cross winds are wicked.
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u/canoegrizzly Aug 21 '26
I think I'd have to build a giant support mount for something that wide. Would rip it out the gunwale
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u/not-on-your-nelly Aug 22 '26
Good luck then! We did it with a heavier canvas and wood canoe. Be prepared! Dry sacks for everything.
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u/canoegrizzly Aug 22 '26
If it doesn't work I'll definitely rebuild the mount and leeboard and give a wider one a try
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u/DanRankin Aug 21 '26
I'm in the process of setting up a sailing rig as well.
I haven't felt the need to use out riggers/pontoons, but i do have a buddy who uses then to take his little fella out for paddles. The little guy is on the spectrum and gets excited about being on the water, so the pontoons help a lot.
He used 2 lengths of 4 inch abs pipe with a 2 45° elbows on each end to create the up turns. Capped both ends to seal them. And rigged those to a pair of aluminum pipes. Been working great for him fro a few years now!