CANOEING, SAILING
AND MOTOR BOATING.
CANOEING, SAILING
AND MOTOR BOATING.
.
BY
LIEUT. WARREN H. MILLER U.S.N.R.
AUTHOR OF
"RIFLES AND SHOTGUNS," "CAMPING OUT,"
"THE AMERICAN HUNTING DOG," ETC., ETC.
D. APPLETON-CENTURY COMPANY INCORPORATED
NEW YORK MCMXXXVII LONDON
COPYRIGHT, 1917, 1919, 1928,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
All rights reserved.
This book or parts thereof, must not be
reproduced in any form without permission of the publishers.
COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY THE FIELD AND STREAM PUB.
CO.
COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY OUTING PUBLISHING CO.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The author sailing the Wee Bee,
an innovation in jib-headed cruising ketches.
PREFACE
THIS book treats of the simple things of life on the water, things that any man may enjoy -- canoes, yachts of moderate dimensions, motor boats. The sea is eternal. Its lure is always the same, and men who live on its shores will forever be satisfying that longing to be afloat on it. Those who do not make it a life's business the sea invites to at least come and play. That play is expensive, most expensive, if one insists on a modern racer. There are plenty of books for those who delight in getting somewhere else on the water in the least possible time; this one is for him who would enjoy a more leisurely cruise, look in at strange ports, canoe strange rivers.
There is a deal, however, for the confirmed boat-fusser, for the man who is somewhat handy with tools and likes to build, for the youth whose pocketbook is meager. It is written for the man who wants to own a canoe, a sailboat, a motor boat, yet cannot afford to buy one. Why not build one? The author can never remember the time he was not building a craft of some sort, for the mere fun of it. Most of the cost of boat building is labor. During the past ten years, by way of example, lumber cost for boats has not increased so very much. You can still buy white pine of fair grade for ten cents a board foot; twenty for Number One grade, free from knots. Oak comes at about fifteen to twenty cents. And, when you have said oak and pine, you have covered all the lumber really necessary for a boat. Engines and hardware are not so different in price from what they were. I see no great difference in anchors, cleats, blocks, portholes; can still get a good ten-horse engine for two hundred and fifty dollars, which is just what Go-Sum's engine cost ten years ago. Knockdown boat frames seem to have gone out of favor. I believe there is still a company making a line of them in Bay City, Michigan.
Rigs have advanced considerably in the past ten years. The Marconi jibheaded rig has come to stay. It appears nowadays on boats as small as thirteen feet, in the Gloucester Midget class. The difficulties of a smooth track for the hoist have been ironed out. Mast fittings are on the general market for Marconi shrouds. The jib has a tendency to become larger and to be concentrated in one sail. Scientific tests have proved that it is more efficient, area for area, than the mainsail because the latter's mast cuts off so much of the wind efficiency.
Aside from the supremacy of the Marconi rig -- which may be stepped in any boat formerly carrying a gaff mainsail -- this book is quite the same aid and guide as it was when first written. And it may not be presumed that the writer has stood still, practically, for the last few years; in fact, he cries guilty to having built a new type of sailing cruiser not described in these pages but worthy of mention here, as his own recent contribution to yachting in general.
This cruiser, Wee Bee by name, is 24 feet x 19 feet x 7 feet 6 inches x 4 feet draft, sleeps two men in her 7-foot cabin, and is ketch rigged, with 300 square feet of sail area. Her sails are jibheaded, like the Marconi but hoisted on sliding gunter gaffs cocked straight up. I am no carpenter, but I built her myself, on the urge to own a small but comfortable cruiser that would be "able" on the high seas yet not too much boat. She has been sailing four years and seems a success -- as much as any innovation can be on the eternal and conservative sea. She feeds her crew from a lazarette, or small galley-cabin, placed just forward of the mizzenmast. This holds a two burner galley stove, ice box, water keg with faucet, and racks for plates, provision cans, etc. The cockpit is between the forward bulkhead of the lazarette and the after bulkhead of the cabin. It is 6 feet long and seats three people comfortably on its weather side. An awning goes over it in port, hung from the main boom.
Wee Bee is a dry boat, even in 10-foot waves, very easy to handle, and sails herself, on tacks, with helm lashed. You can drop mainsail and reef any time, the jib and mizzen carrying her along on course. I have done it, again and again, when the wind freshened so as to require another reef. Or, if too strong for any mainsail at all, she does well on jib and mizzen alone. The construction is simply Margaret (described early in this book), with three strakes lapping one above the other, ribs every 2 feet, and a skip jack bottom springing from an oak fin keel of 2-inch stock. She carries 400 pounds of lead on the fin keel and 300 pounds of stone ballast inside.
A cabin feature worthy of mention is that, while it shows 5 feet length above the coaming, it is 6 feet long down where the berths come. This was done to give more seating room in the cockpit, and was managed by bringing up the after bulkhead some 2 feet, then insetting 14 inches, making a cross-seat for the cockpit, and from there raising the after wall and doors of the cabin. The crew's heads go side by side on pillows under that bulkhead seat. We found that a small porthole was needed in the bulkhead so as to give air there at night. Also this bulkhead makes the whole forward part of the boat water-tight.
Wee Bee was knocked down under sail once and filled her cockpit with green water. Dropping mainsail, which can be done instantly with the sliding gunter gaff, she righted and sailed on under jib and mainsail while the crew bailed out. I do not know of any other boat that was ever fairly upset yet got up and went on again without assistance! All due to the cabin and lazarette bulkheads making stern and bow unsinkable.
Finally, as an auxiliary, she carries a 2-1/2 hp. Bridgeport motor, offset 6 inches from centerline to pass the rudderhead with its screw. This engine is located in the cockpit under the steering wheel post but to one side of it. It takes up virtually no room and is a great convenience in calms and crowded harbors.
I built her myself, boat, sails, spars, and rigging, with a lot of fun and no very great work -- and no difficult fits. Her description forms, rightfully, part of this preface, as witnessing what the author has to say for himself that is new as a boatbuilder. Your attention is called to Wee Bee's picture, which forms our new frontispiece. With that picture to guide him, any one should be able to build her duplicate. She is yours, readers! I claim no patent on her at all, and warn off all unscrupulous manufacturers from commercializing her !
W.H.M.
EAST GLOUCESTER, MASS.
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CHAPTER |
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THE SAILING BATTEAU |
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SAIL DORY, DUCKBOAT AND SKIFF |
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CATBOATS AND KNOCKABOUTS |
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BOAT BUILDING |
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HOW TO RIG AND HANDLE AN OPEN CANOE |
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CANOE CRUISING |
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HOW TO BUILD A DECKED CANVAS CRUISING CANOE |
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CANOE FITTINGS |
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II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. |
CHOOSING YOUR MOTOR BOAT |
189 |
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ILLUSTRATIONS. |
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[NOTE: many of the original illustrations are very small and blurred and the dimensions, etc., practically unreadable. I have scanned them as large as practical and will replace them with clearer scans if another copy of this book ever comes my way. -- COD] |
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THE AUTHOR SAILING THE Wee Bee |
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 SAILING
BATTEAU
Margaret
 SAILING
BATTEAU
Margaret
 KEEL BOARD FOR 15-FT SAILING
BATTEAU
 UNDER
FULL
SAIL
 WHISTLING
FOR A BREEZE
 NAUTICAL NAMES ABOUT A BOAT
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 BISHOP'S CLASSIC SNEAKBOX "CENTENNIAL REPUBLIC"  THE BARNEGAT DUCK BOAT
 THE 17-FT CLUB SAILING DORY Bee
 18-FT DECKED RACING DORIES
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 A 16-FT LAPSTRAKE CATBOAT FOR
BOYS
 FRAME PLAN AND DECK PLAN OF 16-FT LAPSTRAKE CATBOAT
 A KNOCKABOUT RIG FOR A
22-FT DECKED SKIFF
 THE POPULAR 15-RATER KNOCKABOUT
 SAIL PLAN OF A 26-FT LOA KNOCKABOUT
 FRAMING PLANS AND DECK PLAN OF 16-FT RACING CATBOAT  KNOTS AND BENDS USED IN
SEAMANSHIP
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 SHEER PLAN AND BODY PLAN OF 19-FT SAIL DORY
 FRAMING DESIGNS FOR A
19-FT SAIL DORY
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 PADDLES LASHED IN POSITION
 CARRYING SINGLE
 SAIL
PLAN Waterat IV
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 THE SIDE-OPENING GRUB BAG
 DAN BEARD OR CAMPFIRE TENT
 THE FORESTER TENT
 THE PERFECT SHELTER TENT
 THE CANOE TARP CAMP
 GETTING BREAKFAST IN THE
CANOE TARP CAMP
 READY TO GO OVERBOARD AGAIN
 THE Varmint UNDER FULL SAIL
 STEM
AND
STERN CONSTRUCTION, Waterat IV
 THE Waterat IV WITH
SAILS AND COCKPIT TENT
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 FRAME PLAN
 (SIDE) RIBBANDS
 DECK FRAMING
 (BOW) BODY VIEW
 AFTER STRETCHING CANVAS
 ROUNDING
THE
MARK
SAIL
PLAN
 THE Varmint UNDER AN ASH BREEZE
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PART III: |
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A HUSKY LAUNCH FOR BAYS OR LARGE LAKES |
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CHAPTERS III, IV |
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CABIN PLAN AND ELEVATION OF THE Go-Sum |
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PART IV: |
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CRANK PISTON AND ENGINE BED |
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CHAPTERS IX, X |
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OVERBOARD WITH A PAIR OF SHEARS |
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THE 13-FT LWL 
A 
TO 
© 2002 Craig O'Donnell
May not be reproduced without my permission.