Old Town canoe sail rig information

Benson Gray

Canoe History Enthusiast
Staff member
I was researching the original sizes of the Old Town Canoe sails and found some information that might interest anyone else with plans to restore one. The images below are the original company notes on the topic over the years.

The first image gives the sail sizes in square feet and the luff, leach, foot, and roach measurements. More information about these terms can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parts_of_a_sail or any good sailing book. Another good resource is "Canoe Rig - The Essence and the Art" by Todd Bradshaw which is available from http://woodencanoe.org/catalog/prod...d=436&osCsid=62f6833df1c7adb1b335034ea61b625e in the WCHA store. This summary includes the 75 square foot Wahoo sail so these notes must date from the late 1960s.

The second image gives the lengths or the mast, boom/spar, rope/line, battens, etc. for a similar collection of sail sizes. This page is dated July 17th, 1964.

The third image shows the shape and dimensions for the modern leeboards. It is also interesting to note that A+F (Abercrombie and Fitch) appears to have requested slightly larger leeboards than usual. This page is not dated although some notes on the back side of this page were dated 1950.

The fourth image shows the rudder outline with some interesting notes about a twin sail rig on the bottom. This one is dated November 16th, 1931.

The fifth image shows an older collection of sail sizes. This includes a 125 square foot monster that was probably a challenge to handle in anything more than a gentle breeze. The sail prices on the back side of this page indicate that these notes were probably made in 1941 and the spar size was listed as one and a quarter inches in diameter.

The last image shows yet another collection of sail sizes with rig diameters and another collection of dual sail information on the bottom.

Please reply here if you have any questions. Thanks,

Benson
 

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Last edited:
This is an old thread but I've recently had some requests for information about Old Town's other sailing boats so this seemed like a logical place to add that. The first image shows a 1939 plan for the 72 square foot dinghy sail. The second shows an assortment of dinghy sail information from 1932 to the 1940s. The last one shows information about the sails for the 13 and a half foot long sailboat which was also know as the lapstrake sailboat or the Whitecap. Please reply here if you have any questions. Thanks,

Benson



Dinghy-sail.jpg




Dinghy-sails.jpg




Whitecap.jpg
 
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