falconsails

My sail racing days led me to be stuck in thinking a kayak can not be sailed, or is not worth sailing.For many years I would not even consider putting a sail on my kayak.I outright thought it was a stupid idea. Then I discovered the truth of what a good sail can do for a kayak. I can tell you have not used a well designed kayak sail. Do not let conventional sailing thinking fool you.If you want to sail with a perfect sail boat, you can do that and carry a sail with you when you want to paddle. A properly designed kayak sail can be very efficient. You can easily sail to within 60 degrees of staight up wind. That means 66% lines you choose can be taken.If you concentrate just like you have to when sailing a dedicated boat, you can do better than that.With some smart planning, you can increase your actual sailing routs to be very high. If you demand perfection you will loose out in opportunities.I guess a typical dedicated sail boat may be able to sail 75% when everything is going great and you are concentrating.If you paddle sail, you can go closer to the wind than you can sailing a dedicated sail boat. About 30 degrees down from straight up wind. This means 5 out of 6 lines can be taken. Use a good rig, add some tacking, and you are sailing even more. Some days we sail a 90% of the day, and could tack to make it 100%, but choose to paddle cuz some times its just faster. I remember my days of sailing, and I would just not go becuase I would not go unless I knew there would be wind. Hanging in a sail boat without wind is the worst. In my kayak, I go even if wind is not a guaranteed thing. When I paddle with a sail its no problem if there is no wind. I just leave the sail down and paddle. If there is wind, pop the sail up and sail. If there is light wind I paddle sail. Its a good time. Here are some pictures of the sail down. http://www.falconsails.com/KayakSailingFAQ.php#lower If you are in a kayak, and the wind dies, you have a paddle ready to go as a back up. That beats the hell out of motoring in.

Dave Your boats I see at http://charlestownboatworks.com are beautiful. Looks like you have reasonable prices for what you do also.I have built a few stitch and glue boats. It is a great experience, if you have the time and space.Your work shop sounds like a great idea for somebody without all of the things you need. Space, time, skills, or tools.It be good to put your location on your website. I could see somebody like me getting fired up about building a skin on frame boat with some help.

I can easily sail up wind with a Falcon Sail on any kayak. Not like the Americas Cut racers do, but easily within 60 degrees of straight up wind.Beginners can easily reach back and forth across a lalke or go along a shore line back and forth. If I paddle as I am sailing, I can get useful propulsion to within 30 degrees of straight up wind.I am not talking about what direction the boat is pointing, or the feeling I am getting.It is all confirmed with gps tracking.I wrote a bit about this here.http://www.falconsails.com/KayakSailingFAQ.php#direction

I am a long time sailor, and use to think, lateral resistance appendages are necessary when kayak sailing or canoe sailing. Then I gave it a try. I have kayak sailed for years using multiple boats. Half with a rudder and half without a rudder. I have never added a lateral resistance appendage. So I can tell you from many years of experience paddle sailing lateral reistance appendages and rudders are not necessary. Many major aspects of conventional sailing wisdom do not apply to paddle sailing. I wrote a bit about why lateral resistance appendages are not necessary. http://www.falconsails.com/KayakSailingFAQ.php#centerboardIf you want some high action paddle sailing, I took a video of a few of my late season paddle sails. Seehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysVTtX4H8B0In this video you can see a lady paddle sailing a rudderless plastic boat.You can also see me paddle sailing this boat in my profile picture. &http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzj2RBy80zc&feature=c4-overview&list=UUhIqK0aU7h7P5QdnpZ-xf_w None of the videos on my youtube channles include boats with lee boards or any lateral resistance appendges. Before I started taking videos, I never used a rudder. But now that I let go of my paddle to take videos, a rudder is convenient so I can steer not using my rudder.