Day 14, Row/sail canoe, version 2. Build time: 5hrs.
Woke up to beautiful light in the shop and started working out a flotation strategy. I want to have easy options from bare boat photoshoot/protected water rowing mode, to svelte grey pool noodle light air summer sailing mode, to big yellow repurposed inflatable fenders middle of winter this was probably a bad idea mode. Three easy webbing buckles make the switchout a snap and are a huge setup time saver over laced in flotation.
Spent the day on a very cold windy sidewalk perforating my spars with holes while I worked out the rig. Still working with the little sail which is probably the right idea for the time of year.
Raise, lower, tinker, raise, lower, tinker, raise, lower, reef, unreef…. looking at what tangles with what and fixing it. Truthfully I’m not thrilled with all the jangly bits and strings. Things still need to get simpler to appease my minimalist sensibilities.
I also can’t accept a ten foot long 7.5 lb mast so I’ll be looking at carbon on the internet tonight. I wonder if I could just barely hang the sail on an 8 foot 2 in dia. .125 wall standard carbon tube?
Finally packed it all on/in the van with my dry suit and long suffering girlfriend. Hoping for sea trials, starting with intentional capsize practice (which should be entertaining) when we got to the boat ramp it was blowing a solid force 6 and the little van veered wildly with the canoe on top so we decided instead to go see Ralph Breaks The Internet (seriously one of the best movies I’ve seen in years) and ate tater tots instead. We will resume testing later in the week.
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