Rigmarole

Given the inherent stability of an inflatable, standing up is no problem, and a capsize is the least of my worries. In a strong gust, it could of course happen, but the bamboo mast would probably snap first. Unlike in a dinghy, there is no need to hike out, although with larger waves, I still stand a fair chance of getting my bum wet.

Thanks to a lengthy process of trial and error resulting in a tolerably efficient rig and a serviceable set of leeboards, I can, with sufficient doggedness and patience, even go to windward by a few degrees. But a broad reach on a starboard tack is by far her most favorable point of sail. Tacking is still something of a hit-or-miss proposition, but then, what's wrong with (careful) gybing if you're not headed for some orange buoy at the end of a race course?

Regattas out

I took my first stab at sailing Gonbei when the importer of Zodiac and Sevylor inflatables kindly let me have a sail kit designed for their line of Caravelle soft tails. I got that kit for free, because, as the man--unusually candid for a business person--said, it was not very serviceable and they had sort of stopped marketing it. He did ask me for some feedback, though, which I duly provided.

Gonbei is bigger than a Caravelle and has a wooden transom, but some of the rubber fittings are similar and I adapted the sail kit to it. It had an A-frame mast with aluminum spars and a loose-footed 40-square-foot Dacron sail (the latter, cut into a different shape by my 12-year-old daughter who happens to like sewing, is one of the few parts that still are used in the final rig). Sure enough, on my first outing in light winds on a lake close to our house, two bolts of the A-frame crossbar bent beyond recognition, a retaining nut came off, and the entire thing unceremoniously flopped into the water. I knew there and then that I needed a different solution to keeping the sail up.

The thwart is made of a plank of wood, with a hole for the mast and cutouts on each side to fit over the rubber eyes for the lifelines. Two long stainless bolts with wing nuts are used to secure the thwart to the rubber eyes. The result is more solid than it sounds, and in its final incarnation, the thwart is also equipped to support the leeboards, slightly angled inwards to follow the shape of the inflatable tubes.

My next foray, and the one where I lost the most money, was ordering a standing lug rig with tanbark sail from Wooden Boat magazine in the U.S. I was so keen on the sexy color of the sail that I had neglected to carefully check the dimensions of the wooden mast and spars. The moment an enormous Fedex package arrived at my door I sensed that I had made a mistake. The semi-finished mast and spars were much thicker and heavier than I had imagined and even the brass fittings were seriously overweight for my project.

And to add (self-inflicted) insult to injury, the tanbark-colored sail that had looked so nice in the photo had a rather unpleasant plastic feel to it and seemed like it would crackle and creak in a breeze, thereby disturbing the peaceful sailing experience that I had in mind. After some deliberation, I decided to send the sail and other paraphernalia back for a partial refund. Fedexing the heavy mast and spars back across the Pacific would have cost more than they were worth, so the mast still leans unused in a corner behind our house.
 

As for the rig type, quite a bit of inspiration could be found on the web. Various pages dedicated to small boats, sailing canoes and the like have drawings and information about everything from sprit sail to lateen, gunter rig to batwing, Chinese junk to dipping lug. However, for a novice like me, the nitty-gritty details such as how to actually cut the sail and fasten it to the spars, or how to attach the boom to the mast, are woefully glossed over in most of the descriptions and cartoon-type drawings appearing on these pages.

A place called Lost in the Woods Boatworks in Canada offers wooden canoes and sailing kits. They sounded competent and were quite helpful in response to my enquiries, but their products are not cheap and by now I was determined to roll my own rather than going for another mail-order kit. I did order a plan for a lateen rig from them (which was inexpensive but unfortunately turned out to be also not detailed enough), as well as a small book called Sail your Canoe by John Bull that helped me along another few nautical miles on my quest.

Detailed drawings

So now that I had the information in place, the final implementation wasn't all that difficult. The first set of leeboards that I had fashioned turned out to be too short, but the ones I use now do a credible job of counteracting the considerable tendency of Gonbei to be blown sideways. The mast and yard are of bamboo (yellow and dark brown respectively; one of these days I may go for a bit more color coordination). The fairly long boom is two-part aluminum, a remnant of the original Sevylor sail kit. I could easily replace this with another bamboo spar, but the fact that I can take the current boom apart makes it easier to stow in the boat (and in the car, when I hoist Gonbei--in inflated condition--onto the roof carrier and head for the sea shore).

Dual steering solutions

In closing, I may as well mention another detour I took on the road to the sailing inflatable. Not least under the influence of the wonderful Aubrey/Maturin series of sea novels by Patrick O'Brian, I actually

Getting ready to sail

• Fix wooden thwart to boat with two long stainless bolts passed through holes in thwart and through rubber lifeline eyes.
• Pass bamboo mast through center hole in thwart and secure to mast step with long bolt that goes through mast step and hole in mast foot.

• Attach wooden leeboards to both sides of thwart with wing-tip screws.
• Attach wooden rudder board to outboard cavitation plate with two stainless screws and wing nuts (using holes drilled through plate).
• Assemble boom from two aluminum parts and feed boom through sleeves at foot of sail. Fix outhaul to eyelet in clew of sail and to stainless loop at end of boom.
• Feed bamboo yard through sleeves at head of sail. Pass outhaul through small hole cut in end of yard and tie to peak eyelet in sail.
• Fix small block to boom at about center in cutout of sail sleeve, pass main sheet through block and tie one end of sheet to small cleat on transom (other end to be held in hand).
• Use rolling hitch to tie peak halyard to yard at about 40 centimeters from throat.
• Thread halyard through hole in top of mast (may also be done before stepping mast).
• Attach boom downhaul (short line of similar strength as peak halyard) with rolling hitch to boom near front end, in cutout of sail sleeve. Take two turns round mast and belay to small cleat on thwart.