Round the Isle of Wight by Sail and Canoe
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"For who are so free as the sons of the waves?"
Sailing canoes? A bit 19th Century aren't they? Back in the 1860s Scotsman John Macgregor, a man of independent means and a crack shot with a rifle was forced to give up hunting after a train accident meant he was unable to hold a rifle steady anymore.
This was good news for various animals around the territories of the British Empire and good news for generations of canoeists to come because, bored of not being able to shoot any more John Macgregor built the 'Rob Roy' a canoe that could be paddled or sailed. So started a new craze and men and women of a certain class all over the world took to rivers, creeks, lakes and coastlines, eager to explore in their canoes. Even Baden-Powell got involved, in between being besieged by Boers in Mafeking and founding the Boy Scouts. Until the invention of the planing dinghy in 1927, a sailing canoe was the fastest boat under sail, after WW2 interest began to wain.
Until, that is,a collection of enthusiasts, about 30 years ago, decided that bunging a sail on a canoe was a very good idea indeed. Since then the Open Canoe Sailing Group, an organisation with it's core in the UK, has been building, buying and designing canoes for sailing as well as paddling. A great deal of credit goes to the late, great John Bull, who in 1981 founded Solway Dory, a company based on the Solway Firth, the great tidal estuary where England turns into Scotland, whose shallows and waters are ideal for canoe sailing. John retired in 1998 and Solway Dory is run by Dave Poskitt, Dave Stubbs and Jan Poskitt.
Canoes have some serious advantages over boats. For one, they are light, they can be car topped and they don't need a slipway to launch. You can shove the canoe, the masts, the paddles or oars, outriggers and even an outboard on the roof of the car and off you go. Solway Dory make a number of rigs which are light, easy to deploy, easy to reef and most importantly, don't over canvas the canoe. With the right set up a sailing canoe can be an excellent choice for the ocasional adventurer.
In June 2015, a group of members of the OCSG circumnavigated the Isle of Wight. Keith Morris, Graham Cooke, Gavin Millar and Adam Pope. Here's Adam's report on the voyage.
Garrick
Left: John Macgregor & beard.
Above: Macgregor in the Roy Roy sailing canoe
Intro: Barnacle Bill
Content: Adam Pope
Photos: Pope, Millar, Cooke & Morris
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