Help-Sail on a canoe turned outrigger

My son and I took our Walmart canoe and put two 4" PVC pipes together to turn it into an outrigger. The boat is made of abs plastic. I was thinking of mounting the mast in the nose hole of the bow, with two 2x2 boards as supports. Will this work with a 6'x8' tarp sail?

 

Yup!

I went from this:





to this:





Steve

 

It will sail better with some leeboards added as well...http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~fassitt/canoe_mirror/knight/EFK_leeboard.html

 

Just steamed my rub rails inside of 4" schedule 80 PVC. The PVC steam bent along with the mahogany--- meaning you can steam PVC to a curve. Just thought you might want to curve those babies. Control the curve by also clamping two planks to the respective sides, and the PVC will assume a vertical elongation in section too. You would have to seal the ends and feed steam into the cavity with a (suggested) 1" copper pipe direct to tea kettle or similar. A small hole at the lowest point will drain the cooled water.


Alan

 

Someone suggested "Tyvek" for a sail.......I was thinking of the plastic tarps like Walmart sells, but they may be a bit heavy. What do ya'll think?

This outrigger thing has really effected my son and I. At first, we were a little embarrassed to launch our canoe, fasten the outriggers, etc. at public boat ramps. Now, we have gotten so many posative comments from folks, we look forward to it.

We have added a stern motor mount for a 40 lb thrust Minn Kota trolling motor. The lakes, in our part of Western NC always have a wind from the west, which works fine going one way. Don't know how to "tack" yet, so the motor comes in handy both as a rudder and as a secondary means to get home. I still need to add the liegh boards with a tie down trip thing.

This is the best forum I have ever found for OC info and I am super glad I found it.......THANKS!

 

PB,

If you really get into it later, check out "Sailrite Kits".

Tarps do a decent, functional job, to a point. Certainly they are inexpensive.

You may eventually tire of the aggravating "crinkly" noises though. And proper sailcloth will be much more visually pleasing to see, and feel much more pleasant to the hands.

Happy you found the forum. It is a great place.

Take care.

Tim

 

Thanks Tim, I will look into that. We do a lot of camping and that tarp will also double as a shelter. I am amazed at the number of folks who are putting outriggers and sails on canoes. I wonder how parachute material would work? I have access to some of that. To tell you the truth, the weather hasn't exactly co-operated around here, so we have rushed up this project. Over the winter, and if my friend allows me access to his barn, we plan on doing a first class job on our rig. Thanks for everything!