RxMarine Kayak Sailing

Kayak Sailing and  coastal  adventures in small craft

I'll try to keep this page updated with progress on my Kayak Sailing modifications to my Scupper Pro. Over this winter I am planning to add outriggers, a lee board, larger sail, and when I can afford it a rudder. 20 July 08 For the latest news on my exploits in small sailing craft, see my home page. 22 March 08 I have been working on making a leeboard mounting for my kayak. I spent a fair few evenings making a nice attachment out of wood and fibre glass. Unfortunately as soon as I attached it to the kayak and put on the leeboard it became apparent it was not going to be strong enough :( I have now made a more substantial if not neat affair shown in the pics below. I took this new setup out for a trial yesterday. Very gusty conditions were very difficult and I did manage to capsize! Luckily I was wearing my drysuit so all was well. The lee board is perfectly balanced so even without a rudder it was easy to control. I am now satisfied I have a solid setup for both sail and lee board. Next on the list is a rudder! 8 March 2008 Well, winter is nearly over at last. I managed to get out for a couple of paddle sails over the winter but am looking forward to starting to get out on a regular basis now that Spring is on the way. With my new drysuit I have just bought things should be a little more comfortable. Here is a picture taken a few weeks ago when I had a lovely day paddling up from Orcombe point, up the Exe Estuary and a little way up the River Clyst 27 November 2007 I have started messing around with mounting a cut down windsurf sail on my boat instead of the current polytarp sail that has done me so well. Measuring the sail again I think this will give me about 26 square foot of sail. I need to add extra support for the mast and at the moment I am thinking of rigging up a couple of solid side stays, much like found on the Hobie Bravo. Here are a couple of pictures of the sail mounted onto my kayak. As you can see I need to do some work on getting a better sail shape. My dilemma at the moment is that I have replaced the bottom batten with a solid aluminium tube for my boom. However this is interfering with the curvature of the sail down low. If I use the batten as a boom, as I am sheeting from the centre of the boom, it causes the batten go go out of shape. If anyone has any suggestions please mail me. This may not be a problem when the sail fills with air so I might just try it. Alternatively I suppose I could keep the aluminium boom but not use the batten pocket and keep it loose footed. Another option would be to use the batten and try to sheet it from the clew, but this will mess with my paddle stroke. Although it doesn't look like it I can still maintain a clean paddle stroke with the sail up - this is very important to me. Anyway, here are a couple of pics: 24th November 2007 I took a couple of videos whilst out sailing yesterday. I have another slightly better video but I'm unable to upload it at the moment. Here is the first one: Sailing off the wind I have dug out an old windsurfer sail and have started cutting it up to use it instead of my current polytarp sail. A rough measurement shows this new sail to be about 24 square feet, as opposed to my current sail that is about 18 square feet. 23 November 2007 I have completed the outriggers and akas. It was a lovely day today so I took the boat out for the first time for a test sail with the new outriggers. I rigged up a temporary attachment for the lee board just to see how the boat would balance. Here are a couple of pictures of the launch. I also took some video footage whilst under way. I’ll post this soon! I was really pleased with my first sail with the amas attached. They provided a terrific amount of stability and the height seemed to be just right. They are high enough not to touch the water when paddling or sailing across the wind or down wind, yet when beating into wind the boat is still comfortable when the leeward ama is in the water. The leeboard seemed to be in just about the right position, ideally it probably needs to be a few cm further back for perfect balance. Balancing the rig at the moment is very important as I am not using a rudder. I made an interesting discovery – I tried sailing without the rudder and the leeward ama seemed to provide a fair bit of resistance to sideways slip (I had wondered if this might be the case). Because of this I have decided to try adding skegs to the amas and not using a leeboard. This will help with overall simplicity and also weight. At the moment I am even thinking I might not bother with a rudder although I must admit it would be nice to have one – it would make drinking my coffee while under way a little more civilized! I am also starting to think about the best way to increase sail area. My options are: Make a bigger mainsail Keep the mainsail the same size and add a smaller mizzen sail Do both of the above – I do like lots of sail area on my boats! When I can afford it I’ll get a professionally made sail – I’m sure that will make a huge difference Anyway, I’ll try to keep this page updated with my progress. It’s starting to get cold in old Blighty now so I won’t be out on the water too much. 16^th November Just about complete. Just need to complete the attachment point for the amas and I’ll be ready for a first sail! As I am so anxious to get her on the water I’ll initially try it without a lee board. I have canted the amas at about 20 degrees, that way when leaning over they should be flat to the water. 9 November 2007 I have started construction of the outriggers for my Scupper Pro. By adding outriggers, I shall be able to carry a larger sail (sails) and be able to counter the extra turning moment generated by a lee board. Here are a couple of pics showing the build process, along with a brief description: I purchased some closed cell styrofoam, it's a fairly high density so for the size of the outriggers it provides quite a bit of inherent stiffness. I cut suitable sized strips and glued them together with No More Nails (American equivalent - Gorilla Grip?) Next I shaped the amas using a saw and various grades of sand paper First I put of layer of fibreglass on the bottom of both amas colouring it with a bit of yellow pigment to match the hull - it's not very clear in the picture below, but it shows the underside fibre glassed. Next job will be to fibreglass the top and sides and finish with an extra coat of epoxy. August 2007 I have read on a few forums of people wanting to build a mast step in order to mount a mast on a SOT kayak. With a bit of thought this can be achieved without the need to drill any holes in your lovely kayak. Here is how I did it on my Scupper Pro. The result is a mast step I just slot on, the only attachment is a line to stop it slipping off the front. Any loads my 18 square  foot sail creates are easily dissipated due to the large surface area of the mast step. How does she sail? Obviously until I can get round to building a lee board and rudder I am restricted to 90 degrees at best, any more just produces side slip. I have been out in a low to moderate force 4, close reaching and broad reaching. This proved to be good fun and the direction can easily be controlled with a little stern rudder. By the way this mast step should be easily strong enough to use as an attachment point for a couple of amas and lee board....maybe this will be a winter project for me. Take One Standard Scupper Pro..... Build a  mast step from fibreglass.......even if you have no experience in using fibreglass techniques, building one is not too onerous. How I made my mast step: The best place to locate a mast step on a Scupper Pro is just forward of the front hatch. The profile of the kayak can be used as the mould to make this mast step.  Use play dough to smooth out any sharp angles Cover the area with grease proof paper and packing tape to protect the kayak and to act as a release agent so the mould can be easily removed from the kayak Build up several layers of fibreglass. As the Scupper Pro has a useful lip round the edge, I layered extra glass on these points as this is what holds the mould to the boat  Even if you don't have a lip like on the Scupper Pro, as long as there is a little taper in the hull form, (is this called tumblehome?) I believe you could use this technique to make a mast step for most kayaks. Remove the mould. You now have a curved surface that will slot securely onto your boat. You now need to build on top of your mould  a raised flat surface to provide rigidity and also to give a nice surface to add fittings etc. To do this cut some 20mm wood board to build up two sides and a top. To attach the wood to the fibreglass mould, use epoxy fillets and layer fibreglass over the whole piece, thus securing it all together. Now you have a really strong and rigid structure. Drill a suitable size hole and insert a plastic plumbing tube for where the mast will sit. Fibreglass this in place. Voila! This has proved to be a very robust fixture that requires no drilling to attach. Slot onto deck, no drilling required to hold in place. The loads generated by the sail are nicely distributed: Make a polytarp sprit sail, nice and easy to roll up and far more potential for power generation on a reach than a Pacific Action sail. Use edge cuts and a V dart method to give the sail shape: Sail rolled up: Rigged up: Hmmm, just add water for some fun :) The sail can be assembled or taken down on the water in 60 seconds. What I plan to do next: I am in the process of building two outriggers (amas) Once complete I shall add a lee board, rudder and an additional mizzen sail. This sounds like alot of complexity however I believe I can build a relatively simple system that I will be able to assemble and disassemble fairly quickly.  If anyone has any specific questions I'm happy to answer them, just drop me a mail at andy@rxmarine.co.uk All the best Andy Lyne  (RxSailor)

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