One of the privileges of my job is all of the amazing boat builders I get to meet. After seeing my recent video on the new pedal drive canoe, I got this email from Richard in Australia, who designed this pedal drive outrigger sailing canoe, and even went so far as to put it into fiberglass production. I’ll let Richard describe it in his own words:
“Dear Brian. I watched your latest YouTube video with great interest as I designed something similar some 28 years ago that I called Avocet.
I initially designed the boat to be a car topper with all the gear inside it so that it could be carried on a four-wheel-drive to go camping. The idea was that it could be paddled as a canoe, or have an outrigger to make it stable enough to hold a decent sized sail. The first hull was built in Cedar strip. I decided to go into production and make a fibreglass model (that is the first photo) that worked beautifully and was meant to be able to be used as a fishing platform, it had an outboard seat that made it a lot more comfortable to sail or to motor. The mast was in two pieces and and unstayed, it also turned so the sail could be reefed or furled. There is a permanent leeboard that lives under the gunwale when retracted. The Mirage drive was a later thought and I had to put a blank in the bottom hole as the boat would flood with water above a certain speed while sailing.
Unfortunately, the market wasn’t ready for this type of boat, so the project was abandoned due to poor sales.
I am a keen bird photographer and I now go out on the river with my camera in absolute confidence that I will not go for a swim!”
Richard is now in his 80s and it seems a shame to let this design disappear given that there are very few small outrigger designs available and some of those don’t work very well in real life. Maybe we can talk him into releasing a plan set?
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This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
