Simple Canu to Sailing Canu

[lewisboats]

The weekend before last I went to the Lake Pepin Messabout. Most other people had sailboats and I decided that I had finally had it...I needed some kind of blow boat...NOW!. The monday after...I started building. Sail, Mast, Sprit, Amas, Rudder, Leeboard, hardware and running gear...the works. Bear in mind that I have never done this before and never sailed by myself. Thursday afternoon all was in readiness for the trip to Rend Lake IL. Got there, got the boat in the water and tried it out. By golly the damn thing worked... with issuesthe boat sailed ok but wouldn't paddle worth crap. the rudder was dragging no matter how high I pulled the blade up and it wanted to steer the boat...in the opposite direction I wanted to go. I also under powered it quite a bit...by about half I expect. Third...my butt got quite wet, no problem, but the camera got wet too...big problem!. I had to get a new one. I have started working on the deficiencies...1: the rudder...new one completely...out of stainless (scrap from work). 2: new sail...ordered Polytarp kit from Polysail...should be here in a few days, gotta do new mast, sprit and am adding sprit boom too. 3: build some kind of lattice floor to keep butt ( and other essentials) out of water. Now here is the good stuff...I have pictures!

The initial design...






The conversion...










The test...













and starting on the issues: Rudder:




















As you can see, the rudder comes completely out of the water and up above the deck. The Pivot bushing rests on the deck and the bolt goes completely thru and is nutted on the underside. I still have to weld an eye onto the tiller stub to run the line for the blade lift. The rudder blade and cheeks are of .100 (10 gauge) sheet, the fabricated washers welded to the inside of the cheeks are .0625 (16 gauge, 1/16") for a total of .225 in. The stub tiller arm is .250 x 2.00 and the lever arm is .1875 (3/16) x 1.00. The pivoting end is from a rail switch (trolleys roll down a rail with a side of beef suspended on a hook under, the lever shifts a switch via hydraulic cyl. to another rail...pushed by a chain with dogs (pivoting pushers)) and is adjustable both in its attachment points and its length (on the tiller). I welded a wood screw onto the end so the tiller arm can be attached. The tiller is still a push/pull but it can easily be changed at the tiller stub to a rope tiller, controlled by pedals or other means. I would simply have to fab a double lever arm instead of a single.

Steve

[alan white]

Well, you're working at it. The hull is pretty clunky, and that is going to put severe limits on what else you can do, Basically a simple punt, with extreme rocker, which changes the trim alarmingly if you shift weight forr/aft (exactly as if the boat has jsut move forward or backward under the sail a couple of feet!).
Getting volume into the ends would mean reducing rocker until the bow and stern are closer to the water when loaded, and more equally, rather than the stern being submerged and the bow riding so high.
Scows are fast, or can be. They are like big punts, but with far less rocker, Check out what scow hulls look like. They can be fast in certain conditions.
The rudder you show is okay, though pretty low aspect for a kick-up (which can be narrow and deep because it kicks up anyway).
The tiller might do better with a bellcrank forward and a pair of tight 1/16" cables, rather than what you have there.
Nice work, mechanically speaking. you'll get there.

alan

[lewisboats]

Certainly it is clunky...it was designed for kids (young scouts) to put together in a few days and the layout of the whole hull comes from the first piece you cut out. The stern wouldn't sink so much if I weren't carrying around a gross of cases of beer with me... . I based the rudder on something I had seen for a kayak and I really didn't have issues with the steering ability of the initial rudder...it just liked to steer the boat when I didn't want it to. This was really a quick and dirty throw together to see if I could actually do it and get sailing. I spent a total of about 14 hours to get all the rigging and sail done (barring the foil blades which I stole off of another boat that is defunct as of right now) and is on par with the amount of time spent actually building the hull in the first place. The new rudder absorbed about 7.5 hours or so of napkin sketching and building and should turn the boat as needed. I considered a higher aspect ratio but didn't have the materials to do the job...so I made it with what I had available and according to what I had seen in use before.


Steve

[messabout]

Steve;
I liked the wooden rudder better but to each his own. It looks like you are using a crosshead tiller arrangement. Place the lever arm at the the pivot center and you'll have a better feel for the tiller pole. If I were to make a wild guess, I'd think that you have a layout that will produce lee helm. Explore the situation a little bit and you may find that simply moveing the mast aft a ways will correct the tendency to steer where you did not want to go. You are a capable fabricator and a clamp on mast bridge will let you fiddle with location. Even the best designers have original issues with sail balance, so experiment.

The sail is horrid but it will no doubt go downwind. An old beer sign will also go downwind pretty well. Best advice: Bite the bullet and buy a sail made by a sailmaker. Check out Dynamite Paysons web site. He has some very serviceable sails that are priced most favorably and they are made by a pro.

Yes the boat is clunky as Alan says. It has too much rocker but it will work as it is. For paddling you are going to need a lot more skeg than the photo shows. That too will influence sail balance. A boat with that planform can be exhiliratingly fast if you let it do what scows do best. You must let it heel pretty far ( maybe 15 degrees more or less)so that more boat length will be in the water. When in heeled position the waterline becomes very narrow and long. In that attitude the boat will really go....Especially if you have a decent sail. Your amas will of course prevent it from heeling to best advantage. Pick a warm day with fairly light air and take the damned amas off and try the heeling routine. I presume that you can swim well. When done with a small degree of skill the heeling thing is not too scary. And another thing...The boat will not pound when it is heeled over. Just for the hell of it check out the International canoe web site. There you will see really skinny boats that are probably the fastest single handed monohulls anywhere. At least the fastest that use no foils. (So chill Doug) Notice the hiking planks that those dudes use. You will see that anything is possible.

[alan white]

Hey Steve---- I see you're in Iowa, but if you do a UPS pickup, I will send you a real sail for free. I have a lot of sails in the 35-55 sq ft range, in good shape. Just tell me about what you're looking for. Otherwise, you'll spend $200-300.

Alan

[lewisboats]

Alan...check your PMs

Steve

[alan white]

Check yours Steve.

[lewisboats]

Just got back from a couple of hours of sailing and the subject says it all!

The rudder worked like it was purposly designed by someone who really knows what they are doing...wonder how I came up with it

I had bone in teeth, Ama flyin' in the air, surfin USA type motion today...my mast looked like it was made out of half cooked spagetti...awful bendy... but it didn't even creak let alone break. I think the wind might have stretched some shape into my crappy flat sail...it was even making a few degrees good to windward.

As to the 85%...well 14% of the less than success was the sail...I had to paddle a few hundred yards against the wind where I didn't have enough room for the wide tacks...unexpected upper body workout

And the other 1% was the rudder coming loose...the spacer/bushing is about 1/8" too tall, not letting the nylon locking nut fully engage the nylon and so backing off with all the pivoting back and forth. Otherwise the rudder/rig were ballanced just fine...a little weather helm to turn the nose gently into the wind when the tiller was let go. I had the bolt in the innermost hole...the steering was a bit quick...a total of about an inch of movement fore and aft to swing the nose thru 20 degrees or so. Next time I'll try it on the outermost hole and see what it feels like. No pictures...I lost one camera to the water that collects in the bottom...not again. Besides...I was too busy giggling like a little kid...I wouldn't have remembered to take any anyways. I can't wait to get a decent sail on this thing and see what I can do with it.
Steve

[alan white]

Steve,

Did you get my email with pictures of the sails?

[lewisboats]

yes I did... I thought I replied too. I will when I get off in the morning.

Steve

[Pierre R]

Lewisboats that boat brings back many fond memories of boat that I built as a kid. Most of mine were far less in detail due to the fact that I was also impatient. Impatient to the tune that some were disasters.