Sailing a kayak?

Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
That's what I was going to type.

-Will (Dragonfly)
:plus: Me too

I helped my daughter build a strip plank canoe once..... no kit, just eyeballing. The canoe looks great .... if you stand 10 feet away...:D

I looked over that website you linked. Some of those kit kayaks are GORGEOUS! :beer:
 
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DArcy

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Feb 11, 2017
1,690
Islander Freeport 36 Ottawa
Progress pictures?
I'll third that request.
Last summer I had a great canoe trip into Algonquin Park. The first day started with about 30 knots on the nose across about mile and a half of water. My daughter was a power house and we managed very well but sailing was NOT considered. It was a father daughter trip with a buddy of mine. We could have used a sail on the next leg, more of a reach and the wind had settled down to around 20 knots.
The last time I sailed a canoe was many years ago on a trip in the Everglades National Park. We had a stretch heading South along the gulf coast one day with a nice breeze from the NW. We tied the canoes (17 ft aluminum Grumman) together with some tree branches and put up the tent flies on paddles. We covered ground quickly, maybe quicker than we had hoped since the wind built through the day. When the wind picked up to about 20-25 knots we took the rig down after discussing our plan for getting ashore. We found a nice sandy stretched, powered through the surf then quickly dragged up the beach without any drama.
The multi-hull canoe with tent fly rig worked very well down wind, probably not great on anything closer than a broad reach.
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
We tied the canoes (17 ft aluminum Grumman) together with some tree branches and put up the tent flies on paddles.
What an amazing story and, I'm sure, the experience was even better. Just exactly the kind of adventure I love.
You should post those pictures, if you have them.

-Will (Dragonfly)
 

DArcy

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Feb 11, 2017
1,690
Islander Freeport 36 Ottawa
You should post those pictures, if you have them.
The Everglades trip started as a drunken joke as most good adventures do. We were sitting around trying to decide what we were going to do for our week off in February when I suggested canoeing. Here in Ottawa the water is a bit stiff that time of year. John says "that's a great idea" and we started looking for warmer water.
I have a few pictures from that trip. This one shows the tent fly with 3 canoes, not tied together, just held but you get the idea. The girls did all the hard work that day while the guys just sat in the back and steered :biggrin:

Another day when the wind was on the nose it was tough paddling so we got out and walked. With the stern held in more thant the bow, the wind held the canoes off the beach so we just pulled. My buddy Gord built this cedar strip one summer while we were in school. That was a very wise investment; he still uses it today. It's a bit more beat up but still a great boat.

We saw lots of these guys once we headed inland.

But the real menace was the raccoons along the shore. They had a hard time finding fresh water and were VERY aggressive. One night they came right into the camp while we were cooking and tried to steel the food off our plates and off the stove. We arranged the canoes in a triangle to keep them away but we still had to have a sentry on duty poking at them with a paddle. We used to use the soft collapsible water containers but had heard about the raccoons chewing through them so bought those blue jugs to keep them out for this trip.

It really was a great adventure.
 
Oct 24, 2010
2,405
Hunter 30 Everett, WA
Progress pic. They say it takes 80 to 100 hours to complete the kit. It actually takes much longer if you count waiting for the epoxy to cure. I'm busy this weekend every day so I won't make much progress until at least the start of the new week.
 

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Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
What a rush, building something like that with your own hands.
Wonderful!

-Will (Dragonfly)
 

MitchM

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Jan 20, 2005
1,009
Nauticat 321 pilothouse 32 Erie PA
ge some old windsurfer sails like 1.0 square meter and an old windsurfer mast. check chesapeake light craft, they have a kayak on their web site that takes a sail...
 
Nov 26, 2012
2,315
Catalina 250 Bodega Bay CA
Safely launched Compass Rose yesterday here at Bodega Bay. At Spud Point marina, slip C22. Have sailing kayak with me. Chief
 
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vldp

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Feb 12, 2022
1
Ocean Kayak V Sydney
Hi guys
I suppose many of us did some crazy things just out of curiosity
There is always someone to tell us it’s wrong.
Does it help much?

Please help if you share the same idea or just appreciate the try.
If not let people enjoy the road they took and the process.

I’m building the sailing kayak and my friend says stop it and buy a normal boat :)
maybe I will… but now I see the light in the end :)

Those who are interested just have look at this guy and his kayak !


cheers,
Vlad
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Welcome Vlad. Clever sail boat ideas I always enjoy. The kayak hull shape challenges the utility of a sail kayak. There is an issue with stability. The rounded bottom encourages the hull to slip and slide to lee when trying to sail into the wind.
There have been numerous sail ideas to sail down wind.
 

PaulK

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Dec 1, 2009
1,222
Sabre 402 Southport, CT
Well thought-out setup, though he said it had taken him years to develop. Upwind might be tricky. Didn't see leeboards, and hiking out might be a problem. With the right wind angle, it's a lot less work than paddling.
 

DArcy

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Feb 11, 2017
1,690
Islander Freeport 36 Ottawa
Sailing upwind in a kayak would be an exercise in frustration. Down wind, maybe. I have sailed canoes, but only downwind.
Downwind:
Everglades Canoeing 2.jpg


Upwind:
Everglades Canoeing 3.jpg
 
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ShawnL

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Jul 29, 2020
106
Catalina 22 3603 Calumet Mi
It's sad that Pygmy has closed. I very much wanted to get one of their kits before they stopped production. Unfortunately, I was too busy re-coring a '72 C22 last spring / summer and never did buy one.
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Nice PaulK

I believe @Ken Cross built a pigmy kayak got a kit a couple years ago.

As recently as 2019 I saw there boats in Port Townsend at the Point Hudson marina. Suspect they did not survive the Covid Crisis. Sad. Their boats were works of art.