Rig for a 19' sailing canoe

Wouldn't the stay points be the 4 eyes on the gunnels in the mast area? The dagger board slot is a lot wider than the daggerboard is thick and about a foot longer than the db is wide.

 

No. The eyes are too weak and in the wrong place for any rigging I know. But that begs the question what are those eyes? All I can figure is a lifeline to help get back in.

 

Those eyes are almost certainly for shrouds. I say that because of their obvious placement. If not strong enough looking, how about the alternative--- no tangs at all? A 100 sq ft sail area would be pretty dramatic on that hull. Yes, it probably carried a lot of sail, but bear in mind this would have been an all-out racing machine with hiking out and a two person crew. The bottom is narrow and the bilges are quite angled above the water line. Compared with many sailing canoes of the day, with wider bottoms and less angled topsides, this looks like a boat that would fly but would be so tender that it would be a real handful in even moderate conditions. The question is, should it carry a large traditional rig or something more in keeping with family use, or relaxed use?
Hence, my earlier suggestion of a 50 sq ft rig.

 

So, just home from picking the boat up. It is 16' , so fits with the IC. Also, there are two pipes (one quite close to the bow, the other at the stern) that I'm sure were the mast "steps" (for lack of a better term) that were covered with canvas and paint when the deck was added and a new mast step for a sloop rig or some such thing was installed.

I do think the eyes were for shrouds on the main mast. They would be in the right location and they match the bronze fittings on the boat and don't look like the fittings that are newer and obviously part of the "new rig". I couldn't see under the deck to see how they were attached.

I'm puzzled by the rudder arrangement. It looks like a cobbled up job from when the deck was added. It has a steel kick up rudder but plywood cheeks. It looks like the bottom half of the steel piece was trimmed off, and there's sash chain attached to it. It seems way to small. You have to love the sawed off canoe paddle for a hiking stick though.

Did these originally have an outboard rudder, and if so how was the tiller managed with the mizzen mast in the way?

Also, the mast steps (metal tubes) run clear through the bottom of the boat and are open at the bottom. Kinda strange to me.

The boat was quite heavy. I'd guess close to 150#. We had to get the old guys son-in-law to help get it up on my truck.

On another note, it seems that hydraulic fracturing has come to central Michigan. There were sensors installed in the ground in this guy's yard and up and down all the roads around there about every 20yrds. Apparently, they put the sensors in and then drill holes and fire some dynamite in them to record the sound waves and map the underground reserves. He said that they were looking for oil near his property, but that there was a lot of gas exploration as well. Hope they don't screw up all the ground water up there.

Sorry the pictures suck, but my camera isn't very good in the dark.
I'll follow up with better pictures tomorrow.

 

I should say that the eyes would be in the right place for the new single mast, but not if it was a yawl.

 

Another Photo of a Suicide

I took this photo when I was a kid in Florida, at the 1959 Gulfport Memorial Day Regatta.The boat on the right is a Suicide, pretty typical of the ones that were racing at that time. In my opinion, your boat isn't a Suicide - but I could be wrong. Incidentally, the boat on the left is a Moth, but it's sailing with a smaller rig.

 

Aha, the notorious e-Bay tape measure strikes again!

Is she 30" beam by some chance? Sure sounds like a converted 16*30 now. SHC will know *much* more. The masts for the 16*30 rig would most likely have been unstayed I believe. If you go through the IC Life deck canoe archive you will find a good deal about 16*30s and the way they were rigged. I believe there were various options for getting the rudder past the mizzen mast, they'll be in the archive somewhere, but some were definitely idiosyncratic.

 

The beam is 44" so maybe just a one off.

 

Depends on how old she is. The decked canoe dimensions stabilised to 16*30, but 30 was a minimum beam. I believe the maximum was somewhere in the 42 or 44" region. These were not one designs, and dimensions varied a lot.

The 16*30s finished up with simple bermudan sails on each mast, but all sorts of weird and wonderful contraptions were fitted in the early days. A pair of sliding gunters might be a rig that combines reasonable traditional style with an ability to shorten sail considerably and easily that would be wise on such a venerable old lady.



No doubt the open mast step was to ensure that water could never pool in the bottom of the step and promote rot. Seems to have worked! I imagine there was just a collar on the mast at deck level so it went so far and no further. You would want it flush with the bottom of the hull when in place.

 

Any evidence of the pipes at either end going through the bottom? If so then the boat was originally used for hunting waterfowl. Stakes were put through the pipes and driven into the bottom to keep the boat in place while hunting. It probably was originally rowed with the sailing rig added later.

 

The "stern post" to which the rudder is attached appears to be a later addition held in place by the steel straps. The deck over half the cockpit also appears to be a later addition. My guess is the boat was originally not a sailing canoe, and was converted to sail by a later owner.

 

Two very interesting observations on the "pipes". They both go through the hull. Dcockey, you may be right. The added deck looks like it was just attached over what was the coaming of a larger cockpit. The pipes could have served for anchoring the boat with stakes. The stern post is also definitely an add on that doesn't fit too well. When I get the deck off in a few days I will be able to see what the dagger board trunk looks like and determine whether this is going to become a sailing canoe or a waterfowl boat.

 

Certainly seems possible. A very good look at the daggerboard installation might be helpful: you can usually tell retrofits and SHC is *particularly* well qualified to recognise a Sunfish board [grin] which would certainly be much later than the boat .

The position of the mast/mooring tubes might be indicative too. You can see on the decked Canoe archive that the bow mast tended to be much nearer the bow than the aft mast the stern. I can imagine those mooring tubes you mention, on the other hand, might be more equidistant from the ends. Would that be right?

Also, what diameter are the pipes? I would imagine masts would be at least three inches, but mooring stakes might well be a fair bit smaller.

 

Although it's not a Norfolk (UK) Punt it is incredibly like one, your boat is about the right, length, width, depth and double ended, the earliest were clinker built like yours. If you fancy some exceedingly fast sailing you could put a rig on like A Norfolk punt , See the following links!
http://www.norfolkpunt.org/
http://www.puntclub.co.uk/
Particularly look at the history which shows the boats closest to yours.
The Q

 

The Norfolk punts do look similiar. I am quite certain it was a duck boat converted to sailing. I haven't gotten it in the shop yet. Too much snow and cold here. But the pipes do appear to be for mooring it. They don't look to be well enough braced to support a mast. The rigs on the Norfolk punts are much more than I'm considering. I think I'll stick with a small lug or maybe two sprit sails and see how it goes.

There is a sizable longitudinal crack in one of the planks, maybe 30" long and kinda jagged. I don't know if it goes all the way through the plank. It is the lowest plank. I was thinking of cutting a groove along the plank following the crack and gluing a spline in instead of replacing the whole plank. Good idea or bad? I'll put a picture up when I get home.