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Under the Silks Winter 2004/05 Issue Why Bill Layman keeps a sail in his pocket ... or is that a pocket in his sail? With little over an hour’s work, you too can fashion a multi-purpose “sheet” that can harness the wind. Layman’s sail is simplicity itself!   Story and photos by Bill Layman The next morning the sun was shining and a fine south-west wind was blowing. Taking advantage of it, we cut poles and set up the silk tarpaulin as a sail. Few experiences are more exhilarating than canoe sailing, particularly when traveling in the North. The same craft which had been so stubborn, so heavy and lifeless, which has wearied arms and backs, which has been pushed, poled and paddled, which has been dragged and hoisted and carried, becomes almost alive, quivering, straining, and rushing forward with a will and eagerness of its own. Ascending the waves slowly, it hesitates for a moment and then rushes down while a great wave seems to rise up in the stern and overhang for a moment and then slips quietly under the keel. The canoe shudders, the hands on the gunwales, the feet against the ribs can feel them working and a movement seems to have transfixed the entire craft as if it were pulsing with a life and vitality. ... Sleeping Island, P. G. Downes   Many are the times I have cursed the wind on the barrens, as Lynda and I have clawed our way into it day after day. Many times more we have been forced to set off at midnight to gain a few miles. Like P.G. Downes, we too have been thrilled on those rare occasions when we have raised our sail. Then, like a thing alive, our canoe has raced us down a storm-tossed lake. The wind, our foe, has become our friend. I know scores of paddlers who, like me, have tried a hundred variations of the ultimate canoe sail, and developed a favourite. These, of course, include the ubiquitous tent fly that is jury-rigged to some hastily cut birch trees after a hurried race to shore. I’ve also tried that other popular favourite — a huge tarp hoisted on larger trees and used as a sail for a flotilla of two or three canoes tied together. And I know paddlers who carry a real sail which, hoisted mid-canoe, allows limited tacking like a real sail boat. I have tried them all, and settled on my personal favourite: this simple, multi-use sail. Why do I like this sail? Well, Lynda and I paddle on the Barrens so we have no trees to cut to hoist the sail. (We have to use our white water paddles.) We can’t use a flotilla sail as we are most often a single boat, and perhaps, more importantly, I am a big fan of multi-use products that are simple and that you already have with you anyway. That’s why we don’t use a dedicated, more complex sail. Why carry a specialized sail when we have had entire trips of 30-odd days where we have not had a single favouring tail wind? It just seems silly to get too carried away with a single-purpose sail that is just extra weight and bulk on the many portages. Hoist it in a minute ... Here’s what I came up with. This sail is simple to make and use, and can be hoisted in mere minutes mid-lake at the first hint of a good wind. Best of all, it doesn’t require a trip to shore to cut trees. Lynda can hang onto this model in all but the wildest wind — which has led me to my canoe-sailors’ safety rule of thumb: at the point when Lynda says she is having a hard time holding onto the sail, it is time to get to shore. This is usually when the canoe is literally surfing down three-foot waves and the GPS tells me we’re travelling over six miles per hour. That’s when I figure we have no business being out in the middle of a huge tundra lake in a storm. Sew it in an hour ... Making this sail is perhaps a one-hour project if you know how to sew. The size I settled on was practical: I used the 80“ x 84“ footprint ( 203 cm X 213 cm) from my Marmot Swallow tent. (Needless to say, the sail doubles as a ground sheet for the tent.) Then, I added a paddle pocket as shown in the pattern below (Diagrams 1– 5). Diagram 1 The Footprint Bill’s sail is an 80" x 84" (203 cm x 213 cm) sheet of rip-stop nylon, the footprint of his Marmot Swallow tent. The size of the paddle pocket was dictated by the size of his paddle. Heat seam your rough cut material by running the raw edge through a propane torch. Use a polyester thread to avoid rotting. Note that in the finished pocket, the paddle pocket will add 10" ( 25.4 cm) to the sail’s top width when it is folded out. Diagram 2 Sizing The Paddle Pocket Length: The pocket should be as long as your paddle’s shaft. Width: You will need a big enough piece of material to create a pocket, PLUS a tab (A) to sew the pocket to the main sheet. The width of the tab A is your call — perhaps 3 - 5" (8 - 10 cm). For the pocket, measure the width of your paddle’s grip and fold the material. Make sure you make the pocket wide enough to easily insert the paddle. On Bill’s sail, the finished width of the tab and pocket is 10" (25 cm). Diagram 3 Sewing the Paddle Pocket Fold and stitch the bottom of your fabric. Fold the pocket section over and stitch along the red dotted lines. Diagram 4 The Loop The Loop is made of 3/4" (2 cm) webbing tape, twisted and sewn to the paddle pocket with an “x-in-box” stitch. Diagram 5 Attaching the Paddle Pocket Sew the paddle pocket on to the footprint so that it naturally wants to lie flat on top of the footprint. (You will have to fold the pocket out to use the tarp as a sail.) Why? When you use the tarp as a ground sheet, you want the pocket to lie smoothly under the floor of your tent. If the pocket protrudes to the side, it will wick water from the fly under the tent and into your bed!   The loop at the top of the paddle pocket (Diagram 3) allows us to attach ropes, which we tie to the back thwart of the canoe. This takes the pressure off the arms of the bow paddler who has to hang onto the sail. Experience has shown us that we can sail in wind that is blowing at about 45° to our desired line of travel. Tracking the hull speed with a GPS is a riot! You can watch your speed wax and wane with the various ways the sail is held. Besides, it keeps the stern paddler, who is supposed to rudder the boat, awake. I can’t count the times I have drifted off in a mid-strong wind as a warm sun lulled me into sleep. This sail, as I stressed earlier, is multi-purpose. Most often, it’s a footprint for our tent. Second, it’s a tarp we can throw out in the kitchen if the ground is wet. (It also helps keep knives and forks and such from getting lost.) Third (and less frequently), it harnesses the wind. We have even wrapped it around ourselves when we are cold and tired and have needed to make a quick, twenty minute rest-stop on a windy shore. Grab it in a hurry ... keep a sail in your pocket! We keep the sail handy. It’s part of our kitchen pack, as I explained in an earlier KANAWA story (“Easy Rider,” Fall 2004). It’s stored in the front pack pocket of our Ostrom Nanibijou kitchen pack, and that pack is placed in the canoe so I can get at the front pocket without going to shore. A new improved pocket design As an added bonus, the sail paddle-pockets shown here gave me an idea for a better way of erecting my tundra screened tarp (“Build a Better Bughouse,” Summer 2003). I sewed corner pockets on that tarp, too, and was used to them. But I realized it was time for a “mod” when a mild-mannered friend of mine — a real hands-on mechanic — said that they were driving him crazy and there had to be a better way! He was right, of course. I developed a new and improved paddle pocket revamp. My friend has given them his mechanic’s stamp of approval and says he will continue paddling with me, so I must have got it right. Have fun with these projects some cold winter day and here’s hoping the wind will be at our backs next summer. Bill Layman and Lynda Holland have lived in La Ronge for over 25 years. Look for trip reports at www.out-there.com Write them at PO Box 327, La Ronge, SK S0J 1L0. For Bill’s Bughouse plans, and for his Paddle Pocket modifications see PC Web site. Under the Silks, by Todd E. Bradshaw. $53.95 (mem $48.55)