The customer who purchased the recent Greenland kayak had a rather unusual request, he wanted me to make a decorative sail for it. This was oddly serendipitous because I originally modified this kayak for a sail (One of the reasons I added the drop skeg) before realizing that was a BAD IDEA and never following through with rigging it.
The sail we made for him is an antique looking canvas sail that will never see the water, but as soon as the boat was rigged the devil on my shoulder started insisting that I put a normal sail on the kayak and take it out.
So down to the water we went for a launch that started with the words: “So Liz, when you see me swim out of the kayak don’t freak out…”. And off I went!
The verdict? Not as bad as I thought. Definitely tippy and very hard to get it to run downwind (even with the skeg) but it was almost easier to sail in someways because I didn’t have to guess whether a gust or a gybe was going to put me in the water, I knew it would so I was preemptively ready for the bracing.
Sailing a traditional Greenland kayak is still very much a bad idea, (seriously don’t do this), but it was a fun little ride.
___
This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
