Short Pieces From ReadersOur 16.5 foot Swift Dumoine
Dave Elderton, Vancouver, British Columbia
Hi Edward, thanks for publishing the magazine, I look forward to reading it regularly! 
I am enclosing a few pics of my sailing canoe. My wife and I use it for camping trips around BC, mostly on salt water. I also do day trips, mostly sailing solo with a small group of other canoe sailors around Vancouver. The canoe is a 16.5 foot Swift Dumoine made of Kevlar with ash and cherry wood work. The 12.5 foot outrigger is from Easy Rider in Seattle. The rig is a scaled down (92 SqFt) version of the Tasar design complete with rotating aluminum airfoil mast. The jib has a drum furler which is controlled from the steering position, and the main has a jiffy reefing system. The mast has a handle under the boom which is swiveled at each tack, pointing the mast into the wind. I have a single high aspect leeboard mounted on the forward aka, it swings up under the hiking board. The single large outrigger works well, enabling us to easily launch from a dock, and adding less weight and windage that two. Of course if the wind is up, you must remember to be on the hiking board before the sails fill on one tack. I had not capsized until last summer, when I did an intentional dump, just to see how difficult she would be to right. I let her turn turtle to make a worst case scenario, and it was not too difficult to bring her up single handed. I do need more flotation in the center to bring the gunnels above the water though.  |
