return to section: Waterlust Sailing Canoe Kits Available!
Update 4: The Waterlust team completed their odyssey of discovery when they sailed into their home port of Miami on September 14. It's all been beautifully documented on their Facebook page. We're happy to share a few of the highlights and their fourth and final video here.
Update 3: Part 2 of the Waterlust film series covering the first leg of their voyage has been launched!
UPDATE 2: Expedition Canoes having a blast in the breeze off North Carolina's Outer Banks as the Waterlust crew continues a southbound odyssey. Put in a reef, sheet 'er in, and GO!
UPDATE 1: The boats are finished and launched, and the odyssey adventure has begun. Have a look at the first weeks here in Annapolis:
If you were watching the CLC Shopcam or caught some of the action on Facebook recently, you'll have noticed something new taking place in our workshop in August. We've partnered with the filmmaking team Waterlust to build a pair of 17-foot sailing canoes. Waterlust - Patrick Rynne, Fiona Graham, Laura Graham, and Jennah Caster - will then embark on a 1,000-mile expedition down the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) from Norfolk to their home base in Miami, Florida.
These Expedition Canoes were designed for the purpose by CLC's own Dillon Majoros. The design takes its cues from classic sailing canoes of the late 19th century. Dillon has added a higher volume hull with fuller ends for increased carrying capacity, stability, and performance under sail. The hull design includes watertight compartments fore and aft, watertight storage forward of cockpit, and stowage bins port and starboard in the cockpit that double as support rails for the seat. The cockpit extends under the aft deck, and may be used as a berth for the crew. The boat is powered by a yawl rig, which is traditional to the type and easy to manage, too.
Among the more unique features of the design is an integrated Hobie Mirage Drive for auxiliary power. This drops into a trunk in the cockpit.
Based in Miami, FL, Waterlust is a unique venture which combines marine science, sport, and art, and then makes incredible videos about it. Inspired by their experience creating a film about the 2015 Race to Alaska, the Waterlust team wanted to do something of a similar scale but with a less frenetic pace than a race and less challenging to film than an offshore race through the wilderness. They opted for a coastal expedition at a more relaxed pace.
Once the single-handed boats are complete and launched, the four-member team will take turns sailing/paddling and following along by car as they make their way south, driven by wind, tide, and weather. The resulting video will be published on the Waterlust website and through their Facebook page and various other social media outlets in "chapters," the first of which will be the building process here at CLC.
Will this design become a build-it-yourself project, in the form of plans or a CLC kit? Too early to say. A decision on that awaits feedback from sea trials, and of course before we put the design on sale we must create extensive how-to documentation.
UPDATE: Here's a view of the first test sail, on Tuesday, August 16:
