: Just thought I'd mention - my outrigger project - the one thats
: carried on for years - is virtually completed. Frankly,
: everythingis virtually built. Essentially, its my
: West River 180 with HALF of John Harris's Sailrig attached to my
: kayak. So it's really an outrigger kayak not a sail rig per se -
: yet. The ONLY things remaining to do
: are mating the akas to the hull. That is, cutting and sanding a
: wood strip to match the radius of the fore and aft decks. After
: that I need to attach my finished [and painted] rudder housing
: and foil to the aft point of the kayak. The kayak already
: paddles like its on rails so adding the outrigger is only going
: to increase this tendency.
: To bring sanity to it all , the rudder is a must. Lastly, it needs
: a sail - thats the upshot here. Im looking at something like 25
: to 30 sq. feet. The leeboard is completed to facilitate this.

: The upshot here though is that its a paddle outrigger first. I
: deepened the hulls keel line by accident in construction so that
: it approximates a round bottom to the point its really a handful
: to paddle in anything over 1' 1/2 high [wave height]. I like the
: fact though that this "handful" performer can now be
: optioned into a steady paddler where photography and such is
: possible without the imminent fear of capsize. It'd be nice to
: paddle a ways, just stop, lean back and stretch comfortable in
: the cockpit, even close my eyes for a moment with out the
: constant twitches of near capsize. I want to relax in the thing.
: LOL - this will be a new experience.

: Just passing it along.

: Pete

I'd look around for an older windsurfer, Craigslist is great for this, with a storm sail. This will give you the sail the mast and the boom. A couple years ago I did the same thing and got the whole rig in fairly new condition, with two sails for $45. That would be fairly small and the older sails should work fine on a kayak. Though as an outrigger it'll be tricky going upwind or crosswind for that matter with the ama to windward. You can't really shunt (change directions to tack) like a conventional outrigger would do to tack, you'd have to change the rudder location to do that, might be a little tricky to reach that far :)

Bill H.