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One Man's Sail Rigs
By Greg Welker
(Due to server space limitations I can't post the full size photos
here. You can go to the watertribe site - http://www.watertribe.com and look under "Magazine" then under "Archived articles" for the August 2000 issue by this name.)
I
first became interested in sea kayaking ten years ago, purchasing a Current Design Pisces as my first boat. The Pisces
is a big boat, seventeen feet plus some inches, a twenty four inch beam and swede form, built along northwest coast lines.
The boat is stable, and voluminous. While I very much enjoy paddling, the urge to modify and fiddle about with the boat
had to be satisfied, and a sail rig would allow me to mess about.
Since I wasn't quite sure about how serious I wanted
to be with sailing the kayak I was loath to mounting a permanent mast step in the boat. Instead, I made a inverted "V"
shaped wooden plate that fit underneath the front deck bungee cords and included a small mast step, capable of holding a half
inch diameter mast. The wood was coated with epoxy and the step/plate connection reinforced with epoxied fiberglass.
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| The "Dyson" rig, shown in it's downwind sailing position |
My first rig was a small dyson sail, copied from the ones shown in George
Dyson's book Baidarka. The sail is made of two yards of yellow ripstop nylon, purchased at a local sewing shop.
Sleeves were sewn in for the battens and mast, which were pieces of dowel and scrap wood. The main sheet was connected
from the outside left batten to the outside right batten so that if I managed to drop the line it wouldn't blow out to the
front of the kayak beyond my reach. The double connected mainsheet also made it easy to find the center of force for
sail control. The sail had reefing ties at the inner battens. The first time out with this sail I launched from
a pier in a marina, friends watching and waving as I sailed away picking up speed. It turned out they were waving to
attract my attention to an oncoming power boat! Later that week a small vinyl window was added. A second window
on the other side of the sail was intended, but never executed. I was now planning kayak trips that had their outward
leg paddling upwind in order to sail back. One memorable two day trip held a promising forecast of two days of solid
wind out of the south. I packed my camping gear and headed out into the wind, counting on sailing the fifteen miles
back the next day. That night the wind shifted one hundred and eighty degrees, and strengthened. Day two was not as
enjoyable as planned.
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| Beam reach configuration of the dyson sail rig |
Later, I found that by folding the sail in half around the mast I could
make progress across the wind, and some very slight progress upwind. Upwind? This was something that I hadn't thought
of! After several trips to bookstores and the library I assembled the materials for my next sail. Components consisted
of the tried and true (and cheap) ripstop nylon, two five foot segmental fiberglass tent poles, and an aluminum tube.
I made these up into a lateen sail, using the flexible tent poles for spar and boom, which gave it the ability to dump wind
gusts. The aluminum tube fit into a loop at the boom and was tied off to the spar. With this arrangement I was
able to to grab the rolled sail off the deck, spread the spar and boom, and the mast was in position for inserting into the
mast step. I still think that this is the simplest and most user friendly sail I have tried. This sail is shown being
used as the mizzen sail in the photo with the two lateens.
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| Although the leeboard should probably be located further aft, there isn't a convenient attachment. |
At about this point I learned about lee boards, and built a small board
that hung on a rope from the mast step, similar to the the one shown in the photos. A small amount of lead cast into
two holes in the lower end keeps the board from floating, and the lateral water pressure keeps it firmly against the side
of the boat. The board is lifted and flipped from side to side during a tack, and lifted up on deck when I'm going downwind.
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| The blue section is reefable. The sail is flat cut. |
After more research I came across the old batwing sail designs used in
early canoe sailing. This is the blue and white modified bailey batwing shown in the photos. One of my requirements
for sail rigs at this time was that I be able to stow them easily on board while on the water. The mast for this rig
is an aluminum extendable paint roller pole from the hardware store, costing about twelve dollars. It telescopes from
three feet to six feet, and has lasted about five years so far. Simple wooden dowels act as battens, with the mast end
of the battens glued into pvc plumbing tees to slide up and down the mast. This sail required the installation of a
permanent mast step of pvc pipe fitted through the deck and braced by wood and polyester resin on the hull of the kayak.
The mast step is water tight and caulked to keep water out of the cockpit. Several pvc end caps with different diameter
holes drilled in the end of each allow for fitting masts of various diameters smaller than the two inch pvc pipe. While
this sail can be used on the single kayak, in moderate or strong winds it's much more comfortable to have some force acting
against the tipping moment of the wind on the sail than just leaning in the opposite direction. My wife and I have taken
this sail on several multiple day trips. We fasten our two kayaks side by side to each other using carabiners attached
to both sets of deck lines, with small closed cell foam bumpers placed between the boat hulls to eliminate rubbing.
This system has worked very well, having been used in conditions with three foot whitecaps. With the leeboard, the combined
boats can sail upwind, but it's usually more practical to paddle.
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| The first stitch and glue ama |
For solo sailing I began to investigate the possiblities of outriggers.
I have always admired the Balogh BOSS outrigger system, but have never gotten up the nerve to spend that much money at one
time on this hobby since buying my boat. However, I was able to assemble some teardrop shaped amas from three millimeter
plywood using a stitch and glue construction. These are shown in the photos. The amas are attached to the one
inch aluminum akas with stainless steel bolts and wing nuts. The bolts are held in the amas with a piece of one inch
wood running laterally across the inside top of the ama. The saddle that holds the outriggers to the boat is a piece
of pine cut to the boat's rear deck curvature with a piece of plywood fastened to the curve to provide resistance to
rotational forces. The akas are four feet long and bolt to the saddle using bolts and wing nuts. The saddle
is held to the kayak by two pieces of one inch webbing and cam locks. Although the rear bungees are shown going over
the saddle they do not provide any support, their position over the saddle just allows the curves saddle to better fit the
rear deck. All the components of this system can be disassembled on the water and stored within the boat's cockpit (ok,
its a high volume boat).
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| Best rig of the two for going upwind. Needs the amas. |
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| Details of the John Bull lateen rig design. |
Although the batwing sail worked well, it lacked the upwind performance
that I wanted. I assume that this is because of a number of factors, such as being flat cut, and having rigid battens,
and being made by someone who doesn't know anything about sail design. In comparison tests I found the black and white
lateen actually goes upwind better than this batwing. Given that result, I looked again at John Bull's book Sail Your Canoe
and the sail cut plan for a lateen sail shown there. I shortened the sail a bit from what was shown, going down to six
foot dimensions, but basically following his suggestions for sail cut and rig design. I tried the poly tarp sail construction
method shown in a past issue of Messing About In Boats since I didn't want to invest in good fabric yet at this point. Because
of the wooden spar and boom, and increased sail area, this sail, at least on this boat, must be used with the outriggers,
and is not easy to store on deck. This sail works very well, and full day trips under sail without ever wetting the paddle
are very enjoyable.
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| Early version of lateen rig |
My earliest lateen rig, mast is part of a tent pole, and the spars are
several sections of 1/4 inch fiberglass tent poles permanently sewn into sleeves. This will go upwind, and can be sailed
without the outriggers, particularly since the flexible spars dump wind gusts. It's also particularly easy to install/remove,
since everything is attached together. Simply grab it out of the mast step and wrap the sheet around it.
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| Maximum sail plan at the time. |
Of course, there are always those days when you simply don't have enough
wind. Having reached what I felt was the maximum area for a single sail on this kayak, I looked into adding additional
sails. A lateen mizzen using the temporary mast step on the rear deck works well in light and moderate winds.
I am actually surprised at how easy it is to control the mizzen. The sheet for the mizzen passes through a "U" bolt on the
centerline of the boat. This allows me to cleat off the mizzen sheet in light winds, even through tacking. The
jib is used only in very light winds. I had a unpleasantly exhilarating sail downwind one winter day in strong winds
when line used to raise and lower the jib became stuck.
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| Poly tarp jib |
Adding a poly tarp jib works well in light winds, can be scary in high
winds. Boat handling can change severely! The jib can be drawn back into a ball at the cockpit via lines, and
redeployed the same way.
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| Rudder addition. |
This is the rudder extension I am using. It's a piece of 1/4 inch
plywood epoxy coated, that bolts onto the existing kayak rudder. The edges are rounded.
I look at these photos and realize that while these rigs are obviously
not of professional or even good amateur quality I have gotten much more enjoyment out of them than I have invested time and
money in them. And to me that is the idea, to simply get out on the water
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