reach across the lake to the yacht club after retiring from the race (downhaul not tight enough for beating into strong wind). Creaming along across the waves, I'm sure I've never sailed so fast.
What Is A Canoe? (JohnB)
When boats like the Newman brothers' trans-Atlantic canoe, 'The Spirit of Cleveland' or Phillip Bolger's 'His and Hers' appear, cries of "foul, that's not a proper canoe", can be heard from the waterside, so, just what is a proper canoe?
Canoe design has varied so much since John MacGregor in the 1860's and indeed historically, that one would be hard put to give a single definitive answer. Many years ago the Open University coined a useful term; they talked about 'wicked questions', that is, a question for which one could not give a definitive answer. For example, does God exist?
Even today, there are so many boats extant that would claim to be called canoes but have such a diversity of design parameters. From the almost elliptical stunt boats to the needle like K4's or the thigh hugging sea kayaks to the comparatively wide-bodied open canoes. A wider world view has to acknowledge boats like the often-ballasted baidarkas of the Aluets to the multi-hulled canoes of the Pacific people, who ranged the Pacific under sail. All these boats are regarded by academic and historical literature as canoes.
It is sometimes claimed that the defining factor is that canoes are paddled with the paddler facing forward. This may be true when they are paddled but many were 'designed' to be sailed. The Pacific Islanders have always sailed their seagoing canoes and paddled as an auxiliary.
Nor can size or portability be taken as a definition for canoes vary from ten to eighty or ninety feet in length. The smaller Eskimo kayaks could perhaps be carried under the arm but the Nootacan Indian boats were fifty or sixty feet long and carved from a cedar log weighing several hundred pounds.
One cannot even say they are unballasted hulls, for the Aluet baidarka often carried a hundred pounds or so of stone ballast below decks and ventured far out to sea for many days at a time. Similarly with the configuration, outrigger boats of all shapes and sizes are to be found all over the Pacific region.
Perhaps the only definition that may be supportable could be the beam:length ratio, which is usually in the order of 5.5 or 6:1. They tend to be very narrow bodied, whereas in most other small craft (dinghies etc.) the beam:length ratio is in the order of 2 or 3:1. Of course if one takes the view that many harbour masters do, then it is the overall beam of the multihull that is the criteria, but this is not a popular view among multihull sailors nor would it be among academic historians.
Little transoms also give rise to excitement, but these are by no means new and we have seen the Reynard Turbo and Howard Jeffs' Alute.
This is an endless argument that goes on and on - it is indeed a wicked question. The one thing you can be sure about is that pedantry is a dangerous stance to adopt when it come to defining the canoe.
Book Review - Canoe And Boat Building (DennisD)
Amazing what occasionally turns up in the second-hand book line. We were browsing the shelves tucked away at the back of an "antiques emporium" in Leominster recently when a slim red volume caught my eye. A very nice condition copy of Canoe and Boat Building by W. P. Stephens. A rare find in itself, but it was the nameplate Richard de Quincey which set bells ringing. A thorough search of the shelves failed to turn up any other canoe titles that might have been expected to sit alongside this in the de Quincey library and, of course, the original portfolio of Stephen's drawings was missing as always. Nevertheless, the chequebook was flourished with some enthusiasm (petty cash being of no use these days even in glorified junk shops!) and the find duly ousted the rather battered, ostensibly 4th edition, 1889, copy from my personal collection to our sales list.
Who was Richard de Quincey? Well, the de Quincey Cup has been at the RCC since way back when 'canoeing' meant canoe sailing, contemporary with Baden-Powell et al, and Roger de Quincey is mentioned by Uffa Fox in 'The Crest of the Wave' as helping win the American Canoe Championships in 1933. We have not confirmed the relationship between Richard and Roger; if anyone knows please let us know too! Stephens was still on the canoeing scene in 1933 - Uffa Fox mentions a telegram to him. Canoe and Boat Building is probably the best source of technical material of its era other than Tiphys.
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