Ed Kattel was pretty much the God of open canoe racing as long as he felt like sailing, and his dimensions are still pretty much the standard.
Steve Clark, Contributing Editor, Warren, Rhode Island

This is a brief description of how Ed Kattel rigged his C Class ,or 5m2, canoes, and an example of one I built for Susan Chamberlain.

Actually, he cut down the sheer forward and aft so it was pretty much flat and put decks on the front and last third of the boat. This made (the boats) self rescuing, although it was entirely possible to drive the boats hard enough so they swamped from all the spray coming aboard. If sailed as aggressively as a Laser in 15+ winds, Elvstrom super maxi bailers really can’t keep up, so you always have to back off a bit or learn to bail while you sailed. At least with bulkheads and decks, you didn’t actually go all aglub and could stop and throw water for a bit and then continue on your merry way. The 100% open boats could reach a point of no return where they had such a load aboard they were simply defeated and had to be rescued.

 Here's a copy of Ed's directions with diagrams on how to convert a paddling canoe into a sailing canoe.