Enter the sailing canoe. If designed properly, I was thrilled to find out (remember: I had no prior canoe sailing background at that point), such a boat could offer excellent sailing performance while still being a decent paddle craft. Unfortunately, sailing canoes, even closed-decked versions, were not meant to be loaded to the hilt and then launched through four-foot surf (which is not to say that it can't be done). Nor did those that were even remotely available to me offer quite the paddling efficiency I was after.

Still, my research of sailing canoes was a turning point, as it would later enable me design and build a rig suited to my particular needs.

For a while, I felt stuck. There were no easy answers. Then, one night while sitting in the garage scratching the back of my head, I took another look at my trusty Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro again and realized that my own boat, the one that had carried me safely through many a tight spot, satisfied more of my design criteria than any other boat I had considered. The only thing missing was the ability to sail across the wind without excessive leeway.

Leeboard

Remembering the lessons I had learned from the world of canoe sailing, I decided that what I needed foremost was a leeboard. Getting hold of a leeboard properly dimensioned for a kayak turned out to be no problem. EasyRider Kayaks in Seattle, Washington, offers a very well-made leeboard system with a beautifully finished mahogany foil, a carbon fibre crossbar, heavy-duty mounting brackets and stainless steel deck hardware.

The real problem turned out to be attachment of the EasyRider leeboard to my Scupper Pro. EasyRider's own sea kayaks have deck grooves and factory-installed mounting points specifically designed to accept the leeboard crossbar and brackets. Needless to say, my Scupper Pro had neither special grooves nor special mounting points built into it.

Eventually, I surprised myself by designing and building my own removable leeboard system. I made a saddle consisting of a polyethylene thwart made of ½" cutting board, three foam pads made of several layers of 4 lbs. closed cell foam (one for each rail and one for the compass mount on the centerline of the deck), a 30" x 1.5" carbon crossbar made by Easy Rider, and various stainless steel footman's loops for the 1" nylon straps that held the leeboard saddle to stainless steel rings installed with steel backing plates on the kayak.

The end result was a rock-solid, but easily removable leeboard mounting system for my Scupper Pro. Thanks to the snug fit of the pads, there was hardly any movement even without the straps. Once the straps were secured, I could lift the boat by the ends of the crossbar without any shifting whatsoever. The mounting system, though initially unintended, later also came to serve as an attachment point for inflatable outriggers (see below). As planned, the saddle, leeboard and crossbar fit easily inside the forward hatch of my Scupper Pro with plenty of room to spare. The whole leeboard system, including saddle, crossbar, foil and all hardware, weighed less than 10 pounds.

The crossbar (or leeboard saddle as such), I was surprised to find out during the first test paddle, did not interfere with my normal paddle stroke. That was an added plus, because it would allow me to switch between sailing and paddling mode without having to remove the leeboard saddle. Though representing just over 3% of the combined sail area - about 25 square feet - the leeboard provided sufficient lateral resistance, that is, unless the wind was blowing harder than 15 knots. I attributed this to the fact that both sails have some inherent flexibility and shed some wind - the PA sail has flexible rigging, and the EasyRider mast is basically a tapered 1" fiberglass fishing pole. My estimated leeway in winds up to 15 knots was now reduced to about 20%, not perfect, but a huge improvement over my original leeway, 50%.

Hybrid sail plan

As I was building my leeboard saddle, I realized that the saddle would also provide a perfect spot for mounting the EasyRider sail - right above the compass mount. With the EasyRider mast base installed on my leeboard saddle, I now had the option of sailing with a) just my 1.5m (or 1m Pacific Action sail), b) just the 0.9 m EasyRider reaching spinnaker, or c) both my 1.5m (or 1m PA sail) and the 0.9 m EasyRider spinnaker, depending on wind conditions. Whichever combination I used, I could also paddle and sail at the same time, if I so choose. Because the two sails were installed about 4 ft. apart (the PA sail sits in front of the forward hatch), they didn't interfere with one another (though the PA sail was wind-blocked by the spinnaker to some degree). Either or both sails could be set and struck in a matter of seconds, and if desired, stowed below deck in a matter of minutes -- on the water. The combined weight of both sails was only about 4 lbs!

As it turned out, my hybrid sail plan - with a combined sail area of about 25 square feet - created some unintended synergies.  First, I was pleased to notice that both sails together balanced the helm better than either sail did by itself. While the PA sail created just a bit of lee helm because it was mounted near the bow, the EasyRider spinnaker created some weather helm because it was mounted in the cockpit with its center of effort aft of the leeboard. When used in combination, the forces exerted by the two sails on the helm seemed to cancel each other out. There was still some residual weather helm, but it was very manageable.

 Another unexpected, but welcome benefit was that the two sails had complementary strengths and weaknesses. The PA sail, by itself, hardly moved upwind at all, but together with the reaching spinnaker clawed upwind quite willingly, well, up to a certain point (more on that below). Conversely, the reaching spinnaker, by itself, did only so-so on a broad reach or even a beam reach, but together with the PA sail performed quite well on both points of sail.