Sailing your canoe – the options
For many people canoeing is about the joy of paddling, with the physical challenge of propelling and guiding their boat across the water under just their own efforts. But for some canoeists the temptation to use the power of any available wind, together with the other skills necessary to accomplish this, is too tempting to pass up.

This presentation will look at a wide range of approaches that are worth considering for sailing your canoe, from the simplest improvisations, using little or no kit, through “cheap and cheerful” homemade versions and culminating in sophisticated and efficient high-performing rigs for more serious lake and coastal cruising.

Sailing your canoe on a journey provides a way of covering many miles in a day with much less effort than paddling. Then again it can provide another way of using your boat on a stretch of water that may be familiar to you and otherwise offering little challenge or entertainment. Adding some “sails, sticks and string” to your canoe can transform an otherwise ordinary outing into an exhilarating and edgy one! Experimentation in how to achieve this can be fun but frustrating and many have given up without really knowing how it should feel when done properly. Getting some good advice at an early stage will hopefully inspire you to give it a try and could widen your horizons into this extra dimension of canoe sport.

 

 

Keith Morris
Messing about in boats is very much part of Keith’s life. He has paddled and/or sailed boats as much as he can, in roughly equal measure, both in his professional and recreational life, in the UK, Europe and the USA. 

A BCU Level 5 Coach as well as a Royal Yachting Association Senior Instructor he is a founder member of the Open Canoe Sailing Group, which is a club started in 1990 for those interested in adding a sail to their canoe.


He is currently OCSG Training Advisor as well as Commodore and contributed the “Canoe Sailing” chapter to the BCU ‘Canoe and Kayak Handbook’.  He also nurses a 25 year old VW campervan along to get to nice parts of the UK and Europe as well as doing a bit of running and biking.