Decoration: The painting on the bow is a copy of a Tlingit (Northwest Coast Indian) style head of a raven. I found artwork in a book, put it under an opaque projector, and enlarged it onto butcher paper.
The experience of doing the painting is kinesthetic. To do a good job, one has to slowly breathe out with the long movements of the paint brush. (Canoeing is kinesthetic, too, feeling the environment through one's muscles, skin, and inner ear.) Here I'm using sign-painter's black enamel and a sign-painting brush called a "quill" that has long, soft squirrel hairs.
It isn't easy for an amatuer to get a smooth-edged painting. Unfortunately, Tamal Vista no longer has ready-made "decals" that can be applied to your canoe.
Leeboard thwart: The foam pads on the jaws turned out to be too squishy and were later replaced with leather. The pads protect the varnish of the gunnels. This thwart is patterned after a drawing contained in Building A Rig by Larry Zuk and Bob Halsey. The blocks of oak are all epoxied and screwed together with stainless steel screws. The stainless 1/2" carriage bolt that carries the leeboard costs $5!
Experimental prototype sail: We spread out the Tyvek on the floor of the gymnasium at the school where my wife teaches. John Leister, boatbuilder, sailor and sail-maker was my very helpful consultant and assistant for making the trial sail. We used the directions written by Bill Wallace (I have to say the internet has been very helpful in completing the details of this sailing rig.) It took four hours to tape and cut everything, and I did the grommets at home later.
Leeboard: I got some white oak pieces from Greg that weren't clear enough for his handrails, but had sections in them to make a 60" long leeboard, so I laminated several pieces together to make a 14" width. Only 36" of its length is intended to be under water, creating a foil area of 3.5 square feet, 5% of the sail area. About 15" is needed to reach from the waterline to the pivot, and 6-8" above that is for a handle. I tapered it into an airfoil shape, using the table saw at a 4 degree angle to establish the trailing edge in the center of the material, and then a power plane to shape the rest of the board.
The leeboard weighs only 18 pounds, but it feels like 40 pounds! The first time that I hung it up for varnishing, I used an old leather bootlace---a big mistake. The leeboard hit the floor with a painful crash, and I had to repair the edges where the impact knocked the fiberglass loose.
Rudder: I cut a foot-hold into the rudder for reboarding the canoe from over the stern, the easiest way to keep the canoe balanced when it still is partly swamped. I decided to coat the aluminum rudder with a urethane varnish to protect it from the salt water, which gives it a yellowish cast. Greg thought that it would stick to the aluminum better than epoxy.
Tiller: I fashioned this tiller (at center of photo) from a piece of cherry. Combined with the main sheet block above it and the quick-release cleats on the rear thwart, I can sit in the middle of the canoe and sail with one hand. The rope tighteners on the rudder lines became necessary when it was obvious that even dacron rope will stretch.
Trailer: This trailer was designed to carry up to 1200 pounds, and my light-weight canoe tended to bounce like a basketball behind the car, so to soften the ride I removed one of the three leaves of the springs on each side, and reduced the inflation of the tires from 60 psi. to 40 psi. I also added 186 pounds of steel bar to the rear of the trailer, which had the added benefit of helping to reduce the tongue weight from 85 pounds to near 40 pounds, making it easier to move the trailer around by hand. I moved the axle forward about 18" for the same reason.
The bigger the boat, it seems the complex of details increases more than geometrically. Now we're thinking about insurance, and I had to make an application for an Oregon boat license, which requires an engraved serial number in the wood, to be duly inspected by the sheriff.
Spars: I made a mast jaw for the boom out of oak, patterned after Gordon Morrison's Wood Epoxy Sailing Canoe, which is no longer online as a web page.
Here's the dimensions for the sail and spars. The mast is centered 34" forward of the midpoint of the boat, and the leeboard is 8" forward of the midpoint. The spars are 1+1/4" diameter laminated Port Orford cedar. My first mast was two laminated pieces of spruce, 1+3/4" in diameter, and it snapped off in a stiff breeze, breaking where it had been drilled for a fitting. The second mast is Douglas fir, reinforced with two layers of unidirectional graphite, available from George or Barbara at Aerospace Composite Products (US phone1-800-811-2009). Another reference to take a look at is: A Wood Mast Made Easy by Paul Goodwin - How to build a hollow wood mast using pieces which can be cut easily on a table saw and requires no jigs, molds, or fixtures.
The Stripper's Guide to Canoe-building by David Hazen is available from:
Copyright 1998, David Hazen. You may download, store, or print a single copy of this page for your personal information. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored or transmitted for personal gain.
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