SAILING.
The sail plays the principal part when canoe cruising is done on open water. A
sailing canoe is much more complicated than a paddler. It must have a
rudder, a centreboard or keel, besides one or more suits of two sails.
The canoeman used to sit on the bottom for sailing, but the deck position
has so many advantages that it is now universally taken.
Canoes are sailed exactly in the
same way as a larger boat, and
the canoe racing rules are almost exactly the same as those for
the yacht racing. The paddle is always carried when sailing, to
use in case the wind fails.
There is not a prettier thing in the world than a canoe under sail. It is a little butterfly on the water. If you want to see a pretty sight, go to one of the American Canoe Association's annual meets and watch a canoe sailing race, where twenty or more of these little fellows cross a line and sail over a triangular course in sight all the time. Every style of canoe, sail, and rig maybe seen along the shore and on the water during the two weeks of the meet, and more can be learned in a half day's study of them than in a year of reading.
The racing men some years ago adopted what is known as the sliding deck seat, which extends over the side of the canoe and on which the captain sits when sailing. It can be shifted from one side to the other when the canoe tacks and is much more comfortable to sit on than the deck, and dryer when sailing in rough water. Considerable skill is required to keep a canoe right side up when sailing, as the harder the wind blows the further out of the canoe must the skipper get to hold it up. Cruisers now use a deck seat, as it adds so much to one's com- fort when sailing.
The regular sailing-racing canoes are now decked over entirely. with the exertion of a small hole, called a cockpit, for the feet. This cockpit is boarded in on all sides, so that whatever water gets into it cannot get into the hold of the canoe. An upset in such a canoe does not matter in the least. The skipper climbs out on the windward side and by his weight lifts the sails out of the water and thus rights the canoe. As no water has been able to get into the canoe except the gallon or two in the cockpit, the skipper sails on again as though nothing had happened. No canoeman minds getting his feet wet when sailing.
The cockpit in an ordinary cruising canoe should be at least six feet clear between the bulkheads if the captain expects to sleep in it at any time. The deck opening need not be over five feet long and at least half of this can be covered with removable hatches.
The Sailing Canoe.
The paddling canoe is simple - boat, seat and paddling being the essentials. The sailing canoe has, in addition to these, spars, sails, rigging, centreboard or keel, rudder or steering gear (perhaps ballast,) and a sliding seat.
The canoe is so small and light a boat that it is necessary the sailor should keep in the middle to trim ship. Thus, it has come about, in order to get an effective rig, that the sail area is divided into two sails, one in front, and the other behind him. A rudder is necessary to control the movement of the canoe at all times.
A boat must have considerable lateral resistance (as it is
called), to sail in any direction relative to the course of the wind
except straight before it. If a sail is put up in a shallow paddling canoe,
and the boat is headed at right angles to the
direction of the wind, for instance, it will be found to drift
sideways almost as fast as it goes ahead - it makes "leeway,"
according to the sailor's vernacular. The addition of a straight,
deep keel will prevent this and make it possible for the canoe
to sail to windward; that is, by a series of tacks - sailing
diagonally to the course of the wind - actually to make progress against the wind.
There are many disadvantages to the use of
a keel. It make the boat draw more water and, consequently,
it cannot be navigated in shallows. The long, straight keel
prevents quick turning, and it adds materially to the weight.
A hoisting centreboard serves the same purpose and does away
with these disadvantages.
The first sailing canoes had only one small sail forward, about an inch of keel along the bottom, and were steered with the paddle, the skipper sitting at the bottom in exactly the same position as when paddling. Gradually the keel was deepened, the sail area increased, a second sail added, and the captain changed his seat to the deck, so that his weight would he more effectively exerted against the sail pressure. Then the rudder became a necessity.
The idea of making the canoe a general all-around sailing, paddling, cruising and camping boat was alone recognized for many years, and all improvements in rig were in this line. Therefore, when the centreboard was introduced, it was placed well forward so as not to cramp the open cockpit space which the skipper occupied.
The rig necessary with such a disposition of centreboard, in order to preserve the balance, was a large sail forward and a small sail aft. Some canoes were built with two centreboards, a very small one aft, so that more sail could be carried on the mizzenmast. The modern sailing canoe is the direct result of racing. The canoes that entered the races at the annual American Canoe Association meets, previous to 1888, were all fairly good cruising canoes. Since then, the purely racing machine has come to the front, and the general utility canoe relegated to the rear. Forty-three canoes crossed the finishing line in one sailing race at the meet of 1889. Six was the largest number that completed the course in 1893.
A good sailing canoe can be built and rigged for $150.00. A
fully equipped sailing-racing canoe, to compete successfully
with the modern flyers, costs considerably over $200.00. Long
practice and great skill are required to win a sailing race; but
anyone who knows even a little about sailing, can very soon
learn to manage a moderately rigged cruising canoe and derive great pleasure from the sport. Racing at present is too expensive in time and money for many men to indulge in it.
A few years ago the canoeman were obliged to make their own sails, do their own rigging, and even design and superintend the building of their canoes. The expert racers do this to-day. Now. the best builders supply all the modern improvements, and a fully equipped sailing canoe can be purchased ready for the buyer to put in the water, get in himself and sail away.
The Centreboard.
This is a brass plate working in a trunk, hoisted and lowered by a rod or line. The nearer it is placed to the centre of the canoe the better from a purely sailing point of view. It can be so placed without inconveniencing the canoeman, if he gives up all idea of sleeping in his boat. This was thought to be a necessary qualification of any canoe formerly, and very pretty and convenient tents were made to put up at night over the cockpit as a shelter, the canoe, of course, being drawn up on the shore.
There are two makes of folding hoards, fan-shaped, in limited use to-day, which, when hoisted, occupy a small, watertight box in the keel of the canoe and leave the cockpit clear for sleeping room. They are somewhat prone to get out of order and check the speed considerably when lowered, and are, consequently, not popular. (See page 9. Radix Folding-board.) If a small and compact shore tent is carried in the hold of the canoe, all camping requirements are provided without in any way lessening the speed and handiness of the canoe.
The centreboard is dropped when sailing on all points of the wind, except just before it, and may he left down then as ballast without any appreciable loss of speed. It is hauled up when paddling, cruising in shallow water, and when the canoe is housed or drawn up on shore. It can even be lifted out of the trunk and clear of the canoe to lessen the weight to be carried if so desired. (Canoe on page 18 has plate-board.)
The Rudder.
The drop rudder is now almost universally used. It is
brass, and the plate that is in the water can be raised when it is
down by means of a line leading to the cockpit; when up drops of its own weight, if the
line is released. The drop rudder, when down, reaches far below the keel, and rarely if
ever jumps out of the water when the stern goes up in the air as the canoe rides over a
high wave. It is thus always partly in the
water at least, and will steer the canoe at any time. It is raised up just as the centreboard is when the canoe is run into shallow water or on shore.
Lines run from the rudder crosshead to a tiller within easy reach of the canoeman's hand. This tiller is a movable stick pivoted on the deck, which can be reached from either side of the canoe on which the skipper happens to he sitting. If a sliding deck seat is used on which the sailor sits well out over the side or the canoe, the tiller is made to slide also, so as always to be within reach. (See frontispiece.)
The sliding seat is a racing device, as is also the athwart ship tiller, but both have been found so comfortable for cruising purposes that they are now generally used on all sailing canoes, but not, of course, made to the extreme racing sizes. The cut of a crack racing canoe on the preceding page shows to what lengths the sliding seat has been carried. A smart squall has just struck the sails and the skipper has gone out to the extreme length of his seat to keep the canoe from capsizing, thus getting his entire body out to the windward of the boat. It requires strength and skill to go to such exercises, as the slightest let up in the force of the wind, without a quick shift of position, would upset the canoe to windward.
Sails.
There is probably no form, shape, cut or make of sail that has not at some time been tried on a canoe. The sails and rig must be very simple, as one man has to handle them and at the same time balance and manage the canoe. The lateen is a simple sail, and for this reason was very popular and largely used a few years ago. The sail is triangular, with sticks (spars) on two sides, linked together at the angle - boom and yard. A short mast with a pin in the top completes the spars. A ring is lashed to the yard which fits over the pin in the mast, and a jaw on the boom, which fits the mast and holds the boom in place. A line attached near the end of the boom, called the sheet, completes the outfit. The canoeman trims the sail with the sheet and the sail is bodily lifted off the mast when it is taken down. When two sails are used, the sheet of the mizzen (which is behind the skipper) leads to a block or ring on deck at the stern, and from it to a cleat within easy reach of the skipper's hand amidship.
The standing sail is better than the lateen in several ways, and even simpler. It has only mast, boom and sheet. The cloth of the sail is sewed or laced to the spars. The boom can be folded up against the mast, and the sail wrapped around it. It can be set or furled by simply unrolling it and standing the Mast up in the mast tube in the canoe, or lifting it out and rolling it up. The size of the sail can be greatly increased without lengthening either mast or boom, by the use of battens slipped in pockets made in the sail, as shown in the diagram.
Racing canoes have many standing sails of different sizes, suitable for light, moderate or heavy weather, and the suit best suited to the day is used in a race, the others, of course, being left on the shore. The large light weather rigs spread nearly two hundred square feet of sail, and the heavy weather rig is rarely under seventy-five feet. The latter area is ample for a cruising canoe, and it will often occur on a cruise that fifteen or twenty square feet will be found quite sufficient for speed and comfort.
There are those who prefer a hoisting and lowering rig to either lateen or standing sails and use it for both cruising and racing. There is much to be said in favor of the standing sail, especially on account of its simplicity, but for those who are not afraid of a little trouble, the hoisting rig is much more satisfactory. It can be hoisted, lowered and reefed by the skipper while afloat, and consequently is far better for cruising or long-distance sailing than the standing sail. Small blocks, strong line and neat fittings can now be purchased, and several sail- makers cut and sew very fine sails for canoes. A hoisting sail is "yachty" and far more scientific than any other, but it needs a "sailor man" to make and handle it well.
Battens in canoe sails have been used for many years, and the yachts have lately borrowed this idea for keeping parts of their sail areas perfectly flat.
There have been innumerable reefing gears invented and used on hoisting sails by which they can be quickly and simply reefed by the captain without moving from his seat. Canoemen rarely if ever reef in races now; the races are not long enough in point of time to make it necessary (as violent changes of wind rarely occur), but for cruising or pleasure sailing for all day a reefable sail is absolutely necessary.
Canoe sailors often take to larger boats, and of late years their ideas in models, rigs, sails and fittings have materially affected small yachts and skiffs to greatly improve them.
The St. Lawrence skiff is nothing more nor less than a large canoe, and would be called a canoe if it was not propelled by oars so frequently. A sailing skiff is a canoe in every sense of the word, and the racing skiffs on the St. Lawrence have adopted all the canoeing devices (except the sliding seat) - plate centreboard, drop-rudder, two batten sails, watertight bulkheads - and they are sailed in exactly the same way except that from four to six men compose the crew instead of one man. The crew all sit to windward when tacking, and lean far out during the heavy puffs.
The single-hand cruisers, so called, are also often owned, designed and rigged by ex-canoemen. The best type of such boats thus far produced ("Scarecrow" and "La Gloria" models) are solely the work of canoemen.
A larger boat than a canoe is demanded by those who want companionship when sailing, and by those also who live near and enjoy the sport on large bodies of water, where the waves are at times too heavy for comfort in so small a craft as a sixteen-footer, only thirty inches wide. Be it in canoe, skiff or single- hander, if you are fond of the water and need recreation, my advice is, "get afloat," and "learn to swim." Perhaps the order should be reversed.
