After the dissertations in these pages over the last couple of years it seems pretty clear that if you intend to sail where help is not readily to hand and you have any doubts about handling a capsize, it make sense to have a self-righting boat.

Kaipara, my WW Potter, is one, and she feels secure even in fairly rough conditions. However, she weighs 600 lbs and when launching or recovering on anything but a good slip I need a Landrover. Sometimes kind friends oblige! When sailing off rocky coasts she needs a tender and she has one of sorts. Oars are indispensable for manoeuvring inshore, and a motor with all its impedimenta is vital when the wind fails or time Nautilus canoe of 1886 is short. Launching and recovery tend to be hard work.

At a recent rally ten or so DCA craft were sharing a steep, narrow, boulder strewn beach with forty canoes. As we tried to associate the boats with their trailers and cars an onlooker commented, 'What a picnic!'

Latterly I have been musing on the topic of a light, safe cruising craft which would be cartoppable to allow my towing a caravan as a shore base, easily manhandled, very quickly rigged, not demanding of a motor and in which one could sleep.

When researching 'A Dinghy for Unaccompanied Sailing', Winter '93 Bulletin, I found in Dixon Kemp's 1891 Manual of Sailing an extensive chapter by Warrington Baden-Powell, brother of Robert of Scout fame, on sailing canoes. He designed the Nautilus series spanning some 15 years from the 1870's to the 1890's. The 1891 specification for a general purpose sailing canoe runs as follows:

• naturally stable with a fairly flat floor and reasonable ballast • capable of taking 60 lbs of kit • not necessary to sit out over the side • two watertight bulkheads not over 6 feet apart • rig controllable from the well when afloat, including setting and stowing • no single part, including hull and centreplate, heavier than a man can lift

By 1891 'paddleable sailing' canoes had 25 years of active development history behind them. They had achieved great sophistication as to hull construction, handiness of rig and reefing, stability, portability and accommodation. After McGregor's epic journeys in the relatively unsophisticated Rob Roy in the 1860's, development moved to heavily ballasted heavily canvassed 14-16 feet centreboard craft in the early 1880's. Then sitting out partly replaced the need for ballast and sail areas were correspondingly reduced.

The 16 feet by 30 inch 1888 Nautilus was 'fast for racing - it is hateful to have an old log that lets everthing go by her - and for easy paddling - and on the other hand she must have ample storage space - space to take a passenger without cramping positions - watertight compartments to make capsize of little moment to the safety of the craft and of no detriment to the stores and camping kit stowed in the lockers'.

These canoes were equipped for sleeping afloat, 'without which convenience no experienced canoeist would care to cruise'. It all sounds pretty DCA -ish!

Our Eric Coleman in his 'Dinghies for all Waters', was clearly impressed by such canoes. He draws an interesting comparison between a moderate weight 1880's sailing canoe of 200 lbs including a 60 lbs centreplate, and a light modem dinghy of 250 lbs. Both carry a crew of two though the canoe can only sleep one. The canoe and centreplate can separately be easily carried ashore. In windless conditions the canoe paddlers can see where they are going whereas the dinghy rowers can only see where they've been; and the canoe will move faster. For estuary cruising the canoe is self-righting and the dinghy is not. However the dinghy should be drier. The canoe can easily be car-topped and the plate stowed in the boot. He concludes. 'it would appear that the canoe still has attractive possibilities'. He then goes on to discuss his Roamer dinghy design, which has the self-righting characteristics of the canoe but weighs three times as much.

After decades in eclipse, sailing canoes are now under going a resurrection, primarily as the result of the work of John Bull of Solway Dory, Kirkbride near Carlisle, and of the Open Canoe Sailing Group. Having read some of their literature I attended an OCSG meet at Graffham Water in order to gain some ideas. The set-up and the people were very like the DCA except that they race. As at a DCA meets there was a wide variety of sailing craft. These included:

• a Canadian canoe converted to a trimaran with outriggers • a Selway Fisher 12 foot paddleable dory • some Coleman Ram-X Canadian canoes - no relative • two of John Bull's 'Little Pete' 13.5 foot canoes • a very stable, easily rightable home- designed 14 footer • a handsome 16 foot yawl with three sails

The OSCG is dearly free and easy and eager to experiment with any sail on any boat, repeating the exciting developmental process of the 1880's. Among the keener racers the simple and popular triangular lateen sail is giving way to bermudan, gunter sloop and yawl rigs. There are also some of Professor Marchaj's crab-claws.

Under OSCG rules only wooden leeboards and side-fixed dagger boards are allowed; centreplates are not permitted. In the prevailing F4-5 wind there was obviously some concern over stability and some canoes sported external buoyancy such as the outriggers mentioned above or a tube round the gunwale.

I discussed the question of stability with John Bull, referring to the Nautilus canoes. He saw no need for ballast in that capsizes were few and manhandling the craft was much easier without the additional weight. An OSCG member had sailed this year up much of the west coast of Scotland without capsize. Nevertheless one gybed badly before my eyes in a gust, capsized and inverted. As there was no handhold on its round plastic bottom, the helmsman could not right it and had to be rescued.

The great advantage of the unballasted canoe is its sheer lightness; most are under 100 lbs. A 40 square feet sail suffices and masts are generally unstayed. The rigging is simple and loadings do not require expensive s/s goodies. The boats I saw generally beat satisfactorily to windward and I am told they can also plane. OSCG members are working on the problems of capsize recovery. Sitting out is inevitable on the wind.

The present situation reflects not only our own recent thoughts on ballast, but also the sailing canoe debate of a century ago when Baden-Powell wrote, 'Many able canoeists hold that the plate should be as light in weight as possible and say that a heavy plate kills speed. Does it? We may yet be convinced that weight is in all-round sailing detrimental to speed, but in the meantime we prefer the comfort, safety and relaxation of human effort gained by the carrying of a fairly heavy centreplate and some ballast'.

Whilst admitting that I have been seduced by Kaipara's stability and the snugness of her cuddy, it seems clear that considerations of cheapness, lightness, simplicity and ease of storage could well lead one in the direction of a sailing canoe, without much forfeit of safety.

As Eric Coleman said, '... there are attractive possibilities'.

Notes:

'Sail your Canoe' - how to add sails to your canoe. Price £4.50 from John Bull, Solway Dory, Kirkbride, Carlisle CA5 5HX tel. 06973 51688

'Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing'. Produced over several years in the late 19th century by Dixon Kemp. It is long out of print but available through the library service from the British Library, Boston Spa.

(An eighth edition was produced in 1988 by Ashford Press priced at £48.00. Although the added comments in it by John Leather are intrusive, the original contents are still there and one could pick up remaindered copies for about £25 a year or so ago compared with £200 for the 19th century editions - Technical Advisor)