SAILS FOR CRITISING CANOES (PLATES %LI. AND XLII.) One of the first principles in planning the sails for a canoe is to keep the centre of effort as low as possible, and where a large sail area is wanted, it should rather be obtained by long boom and yard than by a lofty mast and narrow sail. Now stowage of spars demands that they be kept as short as may be, and also it will be found that where the masts are considerably towards the ends of the craft a mizen of con siderable size will have to be carried ; if a fair sail balance is to be made combining these requisites—a good sail area, a low centre of effort, ease of stowage of spars, and a good working balance—the sail plan here given will be found an efficient one for all-round work.
The outline idea is that the main and mizen lags are to be used in all weathers up to a " fresh breeze," and that then for stronger breezes the mizen lug is to be set on the main mast, and the storm mizen on the mizen mast. The total lug area is 52 square feet—i. e., 32.5 in the main, and 19.5 in the mizen ; and the storm mizen is a sail of 9.5 sq. ft. The rig itself and the various fittings have been amply tested in practice afloat, except as to the proposed mode of mast tabernacle, contrived to avoid a hole in the fore deck. The following letters denote the chief fittings : In the accompanying sail and gear plans there will be found only such gear and fittings as have a pronounced value in the working of the craft and the sails. Not a single thing can be omitted; each has its use, and has been introduced under the light of experience. • The drawings (Plates %LI. and %LIT.), are intended to show the position, form, and make of the sails, and are drawn to scale ; the gear, however, is put in the drawing in a pronounced manner, in order to make the details clear to those who may desire to rig in the same manner. The blocks, for instance, are shown much larger than scale drawing would show them ; the ropes are shown thick and slack, so that their " lead " and use may be easily picked out.
The gear at the mast head is either toggled or snap-hooked to a mast head strop, k q b, so as to be easily taken off for the various shifts of sail. The main halyard are rove from the deck block, R, up to the sheaves in mast head, and rove through from forward aft and a rove through a grommet (seized on to yard at 2ft. in from fore end), and then taken on
opposite side of the mast to that on which the yard is, and toggled to a grommet which is seized on to the yard at 6in. from the fore end. Another plan is to have a flat sennit parrel from the fore end of the yard rove through the inner grommet, and ending in an eye just above the grommet, and to this toggle the halyard ; fitted thus the sail is held tightly in to the mast.
A jackstay toggled at masthead leads down on the starboard side of the sail, and snap hooks to a sennit band, which passes under the boom and up on the port side, and is seized to the mast about a foot above deck; this jackstay is most useful in keeping the sail steady when being lowered or hoisted. The batten parrel, m, is either made of flat sennit or four strand line ; the fore end of fore part is either seized or spliced into the reef block strop, f, and the end finished off with an eye ; the after part toggles to this eye, and the after end is seized to the reef batten, so that when toggled the parrel binds the batten into the mast. The main tack parrel, c, is also flat sennit with an eye at each end, the fore end is seized on to the boom about 3in. in from fore end of boom, and it then passes on opposite side of mast to that on which the boom lies, and is rove through a grummet or ring, which is seized on to the boom about 9in. from fore end, to the after eye of the parrel the tack hauling part c 2 is toggled and rove through the deck block R. The stay is snap-hooked or toggled to the mast head strop at k, and its tackle is shown at 1. The topping lif without which no sail is either safe or handy—is fitted by toggling the standing part to the masthead strop at b; then passing down the star board side of the sail, it is rove through the main sheet thimble, where the main sheet is spliced into a snap-hook, which hooks to the grommet at p on the boom; it then leads up the port side of the sail, and is rove either through a block toggled to a fourth eye (not shown in the sketch) in the mast strop, or through a sheave in the mast head above the halyards, and down to and through block R and into hand.