Wings.

Of all the design considerations, it was the sail plan that occupied a lot of my reading and thinking hours. It was so fascinating and there was so much choice!

Although the first dream image showed only one mast and a triangular kind of sail, I knew this was only a starting point: the sail plan would need to be low and spread out fore and aft. Three masts would do this but would this create a wild complexity of sails and standing and running rigging? I reached for books that described traditional sails like sprits and lugs and pictures of sailing canoe rigs.

The slants of the fore and aft masts evolved from the configuration of the flotation compartments at bow and stern which sloped ( and now had holes cut in so that, with a watertight hatch, they could be used for storage).Using my usual try it and see if it looks right process I used sticks as masts and spars to help me test different configurations. I then cut, tapered and rounded three cedar sticks for masts and built some supports into the canoe. There were three different types of supports at deck level. The foremast passed through the front deck, the mainmast through a piece of plywood attached at the front end to the underside of the front seat and the after mast through a plywood crosspiece at deck level. Cedar was what I had available to make the masts from and although not strong, it is light and all through the project I have worried about adding too much weight. I wrapped the places that would take the most bending stress in fiberglass cloth for strength. I made the spars in the same way, adding chafe resistance with epoxy/ graphite where spars would rub against masts.

Even at this point I was switching back and forth between a sprit rig or a lug rig. Both had their advantages, and I had used a standing lug sail on my dory. Fortunately my wife, Heather, is used to my dithering over decisions and is quite easy going as long as it does n`t involve her. I settled on a lug rig in the end but it was a near thing! The slant of the fore and aft masts was useful. The aft sail would naturally swing inward where it would normally be for sailing on the wind, and the fore sail would swing out to the side for off wind work! I added a (removable) pole outrigger on the stern to allow the easy sheeting control of the aft sail. None of the masts needed the support of standing rigging and the lug sails had only one halyard and one sheet each. I also made a small triangular sail for the aft mast for use as a riding sail in strong winds. All other sails had reef points built in so their size could be reduced. In theory, Tillikum can sail with main alone , or fore and aft alone or with a variety of reefed combinations.

Sail cloth for my tiny sails came from a big light used genoa; bought very cheaply. While I dreamed of red sails in the sunset, price and practicality won through. I first made paper patterns by sticking the sheets of newsprint directly to the yards when they were set up in their proper places and after looking and imagining how they would interact and how they could be raised and lowered, I laid them out on the sailcloth and cut them out. ( no changing my mind again now!) In a couple of hours, Heather and I had them sewn up and the next day I put in the grommets that would allow the sails to be attached to yards, sheets and allow for reef points.

This has been a most satisfying process for me because sails are such a dynamic medium - like kite making, but more so. Will they work as I imagine? Not perfectly, I`m sure, but that is part of the fun and I`m working in such a small scale, with such inexpensive materials (There is a lot more of that genoa) that I am free to try things out. Have I given the canoe too much sail? Too little? Will she go to windward well? Will three sails and tiller lines wrap me up in too much string? How exciting!