> their website http://www.quiversail.com/quiversail/home.html and looked at > their products. I tend to paddle most on Lake Michigan, north of Chicago > (the Windy City).Most of the legs are windward-leeward, 10-15 miles round > trip. The idea of a sail is very appealing for the homeward leg. There have > been other discussions on Paddlewise over time on sails, but I was not > interested then. Could someone give me some illuminating thoughts on their > experience with sails: how practical they are, what is the best set up > (hardware/hole vs. hold-in-cockpit), etc. Net-net, I know there is no such > thing as a free lunch,but... My 2 cents. In a nutshell, there are sailing kayaks and upwind BSD rigged kayaks ;-).... For your purposes (paddling upwind and then sailind downwind) you need, I think, some simple downwind rig. I know 4 of them, unfortunately only 3 are commercially available: 1) Spirit sails http://www.spiritsails.com/home.shtml ; 2) Pacific Action sails: http://www.pacificaction.com/ ; 3) Tasmanian sails http://www.vision.net.au/~jennings/sail/sail.html . The third one is so-called hinged design, widely used in Australia, but I don't know of any manufacturer: http://www.nswseakayaker.asn.au/photos/monthly/200408.htm . About Spirit you may read at Watertribe: http://www.watertribe.org/Magazine/2003_1January/IsaacClass1SailRig.asp . After some thinking I've got Pacific Action, it has more or less those advantages and drawbacks over Spirit that I expected, and suits me so far. I've sent my impressions to Watertribe "Chief", he wants to make a review of this rig to determine its suitability for races; report is long to publish it here, and I might be biased, so can e-mail it separately. I think, that Spirit provides lesser hindrance and lesser capsize potential in the race, but P.Action is 30% larger (11 sq. ft) , more controllable (I would say, more a "real sail"), and can be raised and lowered instantly. Prices of both rigs are more or less close. In my opinion, if you like sailing rather than fighting headwind (I've heard some people in Victoria like winds, swell etc ;-) - then definitely get some small sail. Tasmanian - they are controllable, high, need to be placed within your reach, you'll need to make a mast-step, and I don't know how their lines interfere with paddle strokes. Hinged - look very attractive. Low (better balance), controllable, can be raised and lowered easily, and can be cleated (same as Tasmanian or PA), to paddle and sail at the same time, or to have a snack - like with Spirit, that has no lines at all. Mast-step is universal tiller joint from dinghy, no problem to buy. All of them are a pain if you want to roll, - but hinged design seems to be the easiest to roll with (mast uncleated --> inertia brings it down to deck - roll --> raise and cleat mast again). Back to Quiver. Sorry, can't say anything good except for the price. I don't see any size shown. Hand-held design - doesn't look like much fun after using your hands for an hour or two, paddling, before you strart sailing. "Butterfly" (size???) looks like Twins by BSD http://www.baloghsaildesigns.com/ , and I'm 100% positive that BSD is better, I only don't see anything smaller than 20 sq.ft (in my opinion 12-13 sq.ft is a maximum for a single hardshell kayak, speaking of safety). BSD is expensive ($400 or so for Twins with mast and mast-step). But it is good and well-thought. It is not ideal, like any kayak sail rig - this is a kayak, get real :-). There were also twins by Folbot http://www.folbot.com - probably cheaper, if they still have them. I don't like the concept of Twins anyway - too much of hassle for a downwind rig. Back to the beginning - upwind BSD "Batwing BOSS"- you probably don't need it (I have it too, and use mostly with a folding kayak to travel where I can really sail, but very infrequently - in my local waters downwind sailing is better). *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Oct 01 2004 - 23:45:18 PDT
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