“You do not put a sail to a canoe, said a relative,” teasing me up.

Yvon R. Lalonde, Ste-Émélie-del’Énergie, Québec Province, Canada

Editor’s Note: Real’s first language is French and he asked me to make corrections for him, which I did, but only where needed. I left much of his article untouched so as to maintain the quality of his "voice."

What’s the hole for, I asked the salesman at sportcenter? Some people put a mast there and go canoe sailing. Huh! Are you kidding? But he showed me a products list from Sportspal Company, makers of good aluminum canoes. Nice, I said, and 2 weeks later, I purchased the sail outfit!!! (Sail, Mast, Leeboards). I went sailing with my brother two weeks later. We went downwind, but it was impossible to come back windward. Few more weeks later, I went sailing again, alone, no experience, sitting at the rear seat trying to sail, then a small breeze made canoe to capsize!!!!

That was my first experiences in canoe sailing. “You do not put a sail to a canoe, said a relative,” teasing me up. Others said I was dreaming or a bit nuts. So after a while I quit sailing canoe, cuz I thought they might be right. Three years passed until one day in September 2007, while paddling with another relative, a very light breeze made me dreaming again about canoe sailing. My relative lives in Switzerland and by the end of that month, he was back to Zurich.

I began looking literature and pics on Internet, see how people were sailing a canoe, I learned about leeboards, real lift able rudder instead of a paddle, rigging, all parts, from leeboards thwart to mast thwart, and from cordage to blocks and so on. "If they can do it, so do I." The Web is an awesome source of informations. I was lucky, a friend of mine gave me a fine book from a French writer (written in French, my mother language), all about canoe, from natives' birch bark canoe to modern Royalex, aluminum, fiberglass, polyurethane and last but not the least, his majesty—the cedar canoe. All my needs were in that single book. How to sail, mastering wind. Making masts, leeboards, thwart, rudder, sails. But I was terrified about capsizing again.

The book (titled: "En canoe, de la rivière à la mer" – "Canoeing, From River to Sea") included 3 sketches, small, poor in details, all metric measures, but enough specifications to begin drawing plans of actual size outrigger. To me, they were the key for my future sailing canoe pleasure. I purchased a 12 foot long paper roll, look for my drawing tools out the drawers after many years. Book plans were 4 x 4 inches, profile, above and rib size. Then with a precision ruler, a calculator, pencil and paper, I started to enlarge plans to actual size; 3 meters long or 10 ft, wow!!!!!!!!! Too much I said, so I reduced 20% to get 8 ft with a photocopy machine. Ribs were also designed to actual size and reduced 20% of the size. Then I drew the profile, a need for the queel (keel). One week later, all plans were corrected and ready to start construction.

I went to a lumber yard to purchase plywood (not marine), nails, waterproof glue, cedar boards for construction. I must tell here about my experience in building scale model boats. In 1984, during Quebec City 450th years foundation festivities, there was a general fever to all what concern about sea and ships. So I built a model of the famous Bluenose schooner. You know, when you build a model boat, you’re not far of making a real one. So, outriggers construction began after New Year by January the 7, 2008. No big problems occurred, plans were good, queel, ribs, deck, planking, sanding and by end of March they were ready for fiberglass / epoxy protection. I’m lucky, a cedar canoe shop is as close as 4 miles from home and they were kind to sell me all the glass cloth and epoxy I needed.