Canoe Sailing set up for effective expedition sailing

Here’s a few tips on how to set up a canoe for effective sailing on canoe expeditions using wind on open water. With a little preparation and a few tweaks with the right kit we can make skilled progress using the wind.

[Sailoralso]

Wind and canoes are basically incompatible, , no ballast and no keel. So, a canoe can be a downwind boat, , but.
As a downwind boat a canoe needs so very little sail area. The exposed back of the paddler has a tremendous effect on the canoe. Last week I took the two back up paddles, and bungeed them across the canoe, blades square to the wind at about the yoke line. That, plus the windage of my back, was plenty to move the boat, , , perhaps even too much. Sails do work, , if the wind is sufficiently behind and constant vigilance is used to forestall wind gusts knocking you down. However, that does mean, , and absolutely, that this is a never do on an expedition boat, , often far from shore, and very far from rescue. I do paddle an expedition boat, , and routinely am off for weeks at a time. The risk of a knockdown a mile from shore and rescue time measured in days or weeks. Nope.