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A long while back I
copied the Canoeing column from some
early-1900s issues of this magazine without
writing on the copies specifically what the
dates were. Judging from the dates elsewhere
in parts of the column not worth reproducing
this dates from late 1901 or early
1902. The article includes
an exceedingly clever way of adding a mast to
an otherwise difficult canoe, and for
old-time canoe gear geeks we have drawings of
fittings. Following this simple
scheme anyone can add a small downwind sail
to a canoe. PART I. The "Frolic"
was built way down in the Pine Tree State by
Morris, of Veazie, and is an open tandem paddler
of Indian model and canvas and cedar
construction, thirty-two inches wide at gunwales
and seventeen feet long, and her owner's only
regret in regard to her is that he did not know
enough to have her built one foot longer, as she
would have been just as easy to handle and
contained even more storage room. She has decks
about ten inches long at bow and stern, and is
fitted with two cane bottom seats and three
thwarts, any one of which may be removed at will
without injury. The bow thwart, indeed, is held
in place with thumb nut to facilitate its
removal when desired to accommodate large bits
of duffle. The cane bottom seats are more
comfortable than those made of slats, and don't
hold rain and spray on their surface as do those
cushioned with hair and covered with
pantasote. She is fitted
with a removable floor of slats 10-1/2 inches
wide, and running from under the after seat to
well up in the bow, and she has an outside keel
of oak to take up wear when beaching and hauling
up on the float. The rear seat is 22 inches from
the stern, and the forward one 46 inches from
the bow, this arrangement causes her to trim
down by the stern when two are paddling from
them. The thwarts
are placed sufficiently distant from each other
to allow of sitting on the floor without putting
one's limbs beneath them. The floor is almost
flat for four feet each way from the center, and
she tumbles home so much that she is really
three inches wider at water line than at
gunwales. She has considerable sheer, her depth
rising from 11 inches amidship to 19 inches at
bow and stern. Her size and
the arrangement of the seats allow the crew to
paddle either from them or from cushions on the
floor, although in a boat of such great beam
best results are obtained from the former
position; in fact were it not for the tumble
home of her sides, it would be impossible to
handle the paddles comfortably from the floor.
On 4 inches draught she will easily carry 650
pounds and paddle much more easily than a craft
of the same dimensions with more dead rise;
there is, of course, a corresponding
disadvantage, and this is that she has very
little hold on the water and will slide badly in
a beam wind. Lee boards are
a nuisance, and as without them she could not be
sailed, except with the wind directly astern,
she is rigged with one of Rushton's square sails
of 25 square feet area; this does not sound very
large for a 17-foot canoe, but when it is
considered that a sail of this form measures
3-1/2 feet in width at top, 5-1/2 at foot, has
5-1/2 ft hoist, and the lower yard is 19 inches
above her floor and that every inch draws in
sailing ahead of the wind, it will be understood
that it is all that would be comfortable to
handle in a fresh breeze. Her spars,
three in number, are of clear-grained pine, and
were gotten out at a turning mill at a cost of
two dollars for material and labor. The writer
got out just one set of spars, early in his
canoeing experience, and lets the mill do that
part of the work now. Such work is conducive to
profanity, and what profits it a man that he
save $1.50, but lose most of the cuticle from
his hands and a large slice of his salvation?
The mast was turned 1-3/4 inches in diameter at
butt, and cylindrical for 19 inches, from thence
tapering to 1-1/4 inches at head. The lower yard
was 6 feet in length, 1-1/4 inches at center,
tapering to 1 inch at ends. The upper yard was
of the same center diameter, also tapering to 1
inch at ends, but only 4 feet long; there was
thus left 3 inches clear of spar at each end
projecting beyond the sail. Three inches from
masthead a mortise, 2 inches in length by
3/8-inch in width, was cut, and in this was set
a galvanized iron sheave 1/4-inch thick and 1
inch in diameter. This sheave was knocked out of
a galvanized iron block made to take a 1/4-inch
rope. The axis hole of the sheave was enlarged
with a rat-tail file to take an 1/8-inch brass
rod for an axle, and the sheave set with its top
edge 3/8-inch distant from the top of the
mortise. Spruce could
have been used in place of pine in the spars,
and the mast been 1-1/2 inches diameter at base,
but, although 1-1/2-inch mast plates may be had,
no mast fittings of smaller diameter than 1-3/4
inches are to be procured, so the lighter wood
and greater size had to be used. Right here I
want to make a humble suggestion to two of the
best-known canoe builders of the country,
Messrs. Rushton and Morris; if the former would
cast his foot gear rings a trifle smaller and
then bore them up true to gauge, and the latter
would fit his Indian model canoes with decks ten
inches longer and without the sharp bevel on the
under side, we amateur riggers would have an
easier time of it. The collar to
take the spar clamp was so much smaller than its
nominal size that the mast had to be worked down
to allow it to revolve, although the collar for
the foot-hoisting gear fitted all right, while
the very short deck with its great curve
prevented a hole being bored in it for a mast
plate, and it was cut away at so much of an
angle that a block could not be fastened
underneath it to receive a screw mast-ring. A
deck ten inches longer would not occupy any
valuable space, but would strike a place where
the shear was gradual enough to allow boring for
stepping, provided the bow end was simply
rounded instead of being cut in a V, and, if
flat underneath, would allow securing to it a
block to take one of Phelps' mast screw rings
that can be removed when not in use. This stepping
of the mast was a problem that took considerable
time to solve. It was finally mastered In the
following way: One end of
this rope was made into a permanent loop, the
butt of the mast was passed through this, the
foot of the mast, placed in the step and the
free end of the rope hauled taut; this pulled
the mast firmly against the deck, where the
V-shaped notch kept it from side play, and
the free end of the rope was belayed to a
Butler cleat on the port gunwale 2 feet from
the bow, the strain on the mast being all
from aft and pressing it against the deck
where it has the greatest possible length of
bracing between step and support; the
arrangement worked all right. In setting
the screw eye under the deck it was necessary
that it be far enough forward to allow a
couple of inches between the whipped and of
loop and the deadeye, so that all slack could
be taken up. A leather collar was nailed to
mast to prevent grinding and marring of edge
of deck, the collar being 2 inches wide, so
that the fastening tacks would be above and
below points where it touched the deck's
edge. To prevent the
sail drawing toward the center of the spar, and
becoming slack, a small brass screw eye is
screwed 2-1/2 inches from the end of each yard,
and through each of these the outside half
hitches on each end of the yard is run. Rigging
details. The foot gear
consisted of three of Rushton's mast collars,
holding in place his mast foot gear fitted with
block and ring, and his spar fastener No.16,
which allows the lower yard to rise and fall
with the pressure of the wind, and also to
revolve on the mast. A pin coupling allows its
removal from the mast when stowing the
sail. Above:
Footgear. Block revolves without twisting mast.
Reefing lines or downhauls run through the
ring. Above: Mast
Collar, clamped below and above Spar Gear and
Footgear to keep each in
position. A 3-inch mast
ring, which passed over the mast itself, held
the spar in position and the large size of the
ring prevented its jamming on the mast when the
sail was raised or lowered. A brass screw eye
was inserted at each end of the lower yard. To
these were attached 1/8-inch sheet ropes, which
were belayed to clutch cleats placed on the
inside of either gunwale just in front of the
after thwart, where they would be In easy
reach. The use of
clutch cleats allowed a quick and easy
adjustment of the angle of the sail, as it was
only necessary to pull on one sheet rope, at the
same time releasing the clutch of the other
cleat. With a sail 5-1/2 feet wide at its lower
extremity placed in a part of the boat where
there was scarcely more than eight inches of
beam, some arrangement was necessary to keep the
sail from hanging in the water when
down. Lazyjacks
could have been arranged from the mast head of
the lower yard, but this would have complicated
the removing of the sail from the mast. Instead
of this four 1/4-inch brass rings were sewed on
each side of the sail within a foot of its outer
edge and also down the center. Through these ran
three pieces of seizing cord lashed to the upper
yard and passing through three deadeyes lashed
to the lower one. They were joined at the center
and passed through the ring on the foot gear. On
loosing the halyard, a cord attached to these
downhauls was pulled, not only facilitating the
lowering the sail, but bunching it so that it
presented a small and compact bundle when
furled. In stowing the sail, the halyard, which
fastened to the deadeye, connected with the' top
yard by a bow knot, was simply released, the
mast ring pulled over the top of the mast and
the pin in the foot gear removed. The sail could
then either be rolled up on the yards the same
as a shade, or bunched, by pulling on the
reefing gear, and the mast itself was not too
long to be easily carried in a boat when not in
use The sail appears to contain much more than
its actual area, and decorated as it is, with a
huge red Hippocampus, the totem of the
Knickerbocker Canoe Club, the canoe from dead
ahead presents very much the appearance of an
old Norse war galley. Looking at
the Bow. |
