The Lapstrake Sailing Canoe

Why has the double-paddle sailing canoe fascinated so many of our most well respected naval architects?

L. Francis Herreshoff gave us his opinion when he wrote, "...
the double paddle canoe gives the most fun for the money of any type of boat a person can possess..... one of the most seaworthy boats of its size ever built."

But he certainly wasn't the first naval architect fascinated by these boats!
W.P. Stephens published a book in 1889 that documented over one hundred sailing canoes drawn by British and American enthusiasts.
Of course, he also included his own designs.

The Rob Roy, the original sailing canoe

John MacGregor caused quite a stir when he started publishing accounts of his adventures in the Rob Roy canoe of his own design. The idea was delightfully preposterous! He had a wooden lapstrake version of the Inuit kayak built that carried both paddles and a sail. His journal, A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe, printed in 1886, presented an intriguing concept of travel that quickly spread across Europe and the United States.

He told stories of amazed country folk and crowds of bystanders along the way as he crossed the English Channel, and then traversed Belgium, Holland, Germany and France. He would paddle and sail his way, then porter his craft over obstacles, or to the next river or lake. And at 15 feet in length and built from thin oak planking, the boat was the first of it's kind that these people had ever seen.

By the 1880s there were numerous clubs in Great Britain and the United States actively racing. Many of the early canoes carried ballast and were able to handle open water. But in a competition held by the American Canoe Association in 1886, J. Henry Rushton introduced the Vesper model. The new lightweight canoe soundly beat his top British challenger sailing Nautilus, and secured his name as a premier builder.

The "no ballast" Vesper canoe was designed by R.W. Gibson for protected waters along the Hudson and St. Lawrence River. After one season with Vesper, Mr. Gibson went on to design Notus which is slightly cut away forward and improves rough water handing.

In 1889, W. P. Stephens published Canoe and Boatbuilding, a Complete Manual for Amateurs with Forest and Stream Publishing Co. This book documents the progress of Canoeing with many useful designs adaptable for building today. Mystic Seaport holds the original plates which are available for the determined individual. Many of W.P. Stephens designs can be found in this book.