Yesterday I had the first sail of the new sailing canoe. I was more than pleased with her performance and also very happy that I have a few days now to do the necessary rescue and capsize practice which I will try to video as well.
It was evening so I only had her out for about 20 minutes. I covered 1.2 miles with a top speed of 6.7 knots. I still have some small rigging issues to work out such as a mainsheet cleat and second reef point and a better friction fit between the hull and leeboard. I had the first reef in because it was a bit windy 10 gusts to 15 maybe and I didn't yet know exactly how she would handle. The reef gets shake'd out at the 9 minute mark.
You can see in the video the amas pivoting with the waves. They are free to rotate on the crossbeams up and down about 10 degrees either way. This was on the suggestion of Meade Gougeon who used this method on his sailing canoe and it worked great.
The only real design change that I am considering is making the central crossbeam tube longer which would increase the beam of the boat from about 11' 4" to maybe 12' feet. I don't want to make the boat too wide but she seemed to want a little more beam. I may also include a hiking board for heavier air upwind work.
The boat was empty during this test sail so her performance was naturally a bit better than it will be loaded down but I had not proofed the hatches yet and wanted to test them out. They were bone dry after sailing and after blasting them around the edges with a high pressure garden hose afterward.
I hope to do a "walkaroud" video later to describe all the rigging to everyone who may not be able to inspect her on the beach at the start of the Watertribe Everglades Challenge /UFC.
