INTERNATIONAL DECKED 

 SAILING CANOE. Courtesy 

 George Wascheck. 



her. Imagine yourself taking a full capsize, getting your boat up again and 

 under full way in just 30 seconds without a drop of water in her bilge. And, 

 if you are interested in design, imagine a boat of 450 [today 400 or less] 

 pounds displacement putting a 900-pound stress on her weather shroud— a 

 boat whose center of gravity may sometimes be a good two feet outboard 

 of her weather rail."* 



Prior to the 1890s all sailing canoes looked like paddling canoes except for 

 the sails and leeboards. In the early nineties a man named Paul Butler 

 developed four "gimmicks" that are now characteristic of the modern racing 

 canoe: (1) a thwartship sliding seat for hiking (Butler weighed only 110 

 pounds and had to make his weight count), (2) a crosshead tiller which 

 could be reached at the windward end of the hiking seat, ( 3 ) an automatic 

 cleat, and (4) a self-bailing cockpit and bulkheads. The value of this com- 

 bination, says Tyson, "can be gauged by the fact that our conservative 

 British cousins have adopted all but the crosshead tiller in less than 60 



* "The Modern Sailing Canoe," by Irwin W. Tyson, Yachting, July 1949. 



108 THE SAILBOAT CLASSES OF NORTH AMERICA 



