An original 16-30, sailed by perennial champion Leo Friede.
The 16-30 sailing canoe flourished in the early years of the 20th century. Developed from the racing/cruising and paddling/sailing canoes of the late 19th century, it shows what happens when a multi-purpose canoe is optimized for sailing. So-called because they were typically 16′ long x 30″ beam, 16-30s had watertight, self-bailing cockpits and a 5′ long sliding seat. They typically carried about 90 square feet of sail in a two-masted rig. In the 1930s, driven by Uffa Fox and other designers and a growing understanding of planing hull forms, 16-30s began their evolution into what would eventually become the International 10 Square Metre Canoe, or IC, a class still very active today.
The prototype of the new-generation 16-30.
In 2004, I had an opportunity to measure and document an original 16-30 canoe built c. 1913 for the Gananoque Canoe Club, one of a number built as one-design club racers. Designed by Frederick (Fritz) Fenger, a yacht designer and writer of an unusually creative bent, the new boats were built in Boston by Victor Slocum, son of famed circumnavigator Joshua. Unusually for 16-30’s, they were hard-chined. Beginning with the lines of the original boat, I developed a new version, faithful to the original but making use of readily-available, off-the-shelf materials. The aim of the project was to capture the experience of sailing a decked canoe in a boat that one person, with average tools and woodworking skills, could build over one winter in an average garage.
The new 16-30 was reviewed in the 2009 issue of Small Boats.
In 2009, boatbuilder Geoff Kerr, of Two Daughters Boatworks, wrote a review of the 16-30 for WoodenBoat magazine’s annual Small Boats issue. We met up with Geoff in Tupper Lake, NY, at the No-Octane Regatta. There were three new-generation 16-30’s there: the prototype, owned by the Antique Boat Museum, as well as two others built by Dan Miller owner of Dragonfly Canoe Works and Scott LaVertue of the Springfield Fan Centerboard Company. We had a great day of sailing with all three canoes, and Geoff had a chance to get his feet (and his rear end) wet sailing one of them. In 2010, I wrote a detailed, 2-part how-to-build article for WoodenBoat which appeared in issues #214 and #215. You can purchase copies of the 2009 issue of Small Boats and issues #214 and #215 of WoodenBoat from the WoodenBoat Publications web site.
So what is it like to sail one of these little sliding seat canoes? I’d say it’s about as much fun as you can have in a boat, but I’m not really objective on this subject, so here’s what some other sailers and builders have said:
She is a high-tech, cutting-edge, extreme racing machine with a serious nod to history and tradition, buildable by amateurs, affordable, and transportable. . .Simple construction using 6mm and 3mm okume plywood and an uncomplicated rigging plan make the 16-30 canoe easily within range of an amateur builder. The thoroughly detailed instruction book will help in that regard as well. . . I’d call her far better-mannered than the other sailing canoes I’ve endured, and in many ways more comfortable, better behaved, and far more intriguing that many of the modern one-design dinghies foisted on the competitive-minded sailing public. I like to think of 16-30 sailing as a dance rather than an athletic endeavor (Geoff Kerr)
The learning curve is STEEP at first! Pick your weather carefully (10kts or less for the first few sails) and you will climb the curve gracefully. By the time I had logged three hours at the helm it started to click. Tacking is graceful if you remember to throw the seat over before anything else. The biggest thrill is on a brisk reach when you’re way out on the seat watching your own boat like a giddy spectator from a distance! Warning!… these boats are addictive! (John Allen)
A big thanks to John Summers and the ABM for making it possible to own and sail a genuine 16/30 sailing canoe. Not many opportunities exist to own one of these craft, and building it yourself is a terrific experience and yields an historic boat with modern durability. (Andre Cloutier)
So where do you get one of your own? Complete plans and instructions are available from me at authenticboats@gmail.com. The plans package includes 5 sheets of drawings and a CD with a 34-page step-by-step instruction manual and 17 pages of photographs of the finished boat. I’m happy to provide tech support while you’re building, and moral support and helpful hints as you learn to sail your new canoe. If you think you’ve sailed everything, and/or you’re looking for an thrilling small boat that you can build yourself and that will turn heads wherever you go, then the 16-30 may be the boat for you.
Playing With Boats 
[…] 16-30 Sailing Canoes […]
Hi John, I have a concept boat I’ve been working on. As someone who’s impassioned by the 16-30, I’d love to get your feedback on this (in progress) design.
http://davidparrottdesign.com/side-work/#/1630-redux-sail-canoe/
I’m pretty sure that a (mostly) original hard chine 16-30 has just been donated to the International Boatbuilding Training College, Lowestoft, in the UK. If possible, I’d like to find out more, as these are rare beasts indeed, over here. Is there anyone who might be able to help me work out what I’m dealing with?
Hi, Marc. Thanks for your question. I would be one of the people who could help you. There’s a very small group of us in North America who are interested in sailing canoe history. Please send photos and more information to me at authenticboats@gmail.com and I’ll see what I can do to help.
Thanks very much for getting back to me, and my apologies for taking a while to respond; my new toy, a Swift Cruiser 14.8 arrived from Canada rather sooner than I’d expected, providing an irresistible distraction…
I live a couple of hours drive from the boatbuilding college, so one of the owners is going to take some pictures and send them over on Tuesday – I’ll forward those as soon as they arrive. As for her history, what we ‘know’ at the moment may well not of course be accurate – especially as it refers to the IC having been an Olympic class at one point. Her previous owner claims that she dates to the 1930s, but although she does have a definite resemblance to Nymph II in Uffa Fox’s ‘Sail & Power’, I’m keeping an open mind on that too. The hull dimensions would certainly match a 16-30, and the tiller arrangement is strikingly similar to that on the new 16-30 that was the subject of an article in Small Boats Monthly a few years back.
Inevitably, over the years she’s been re-decked, and comes with various bits of gear, which may – or may not – be original. For example, the rig she has at the moment is apparently Gunter, whilst most pictures of the 16-30s show a Lg o’ Mutton. However, both the plate and rudder are thought to be original, and might be diagnostic?
I must say that she looks very tender to me – which is saying something for someone who used to sail an IC (admittedly the Nethercott hull shape, rather than the new rules boats, but even so…!)
Anyway, I’d certainly be grateful for your input. People with an interest in classic sailing canoes are pretty thin on the ground over here, too.
You may have already seen them, but if not I did a two-part how-to-build article in WB 214 and 215 in 2010 about the hard-chine plywood 16-30s that we are sailing in the Small Boats article. Late 19th and early 20th century decked sailing canoes in North America were built to a box rule that balanced sail area, beam and length (ie, greater waterline length would incur a sail area penalty and so on). As it turned out, the combination of 16′ loa x 30″ beam x 90sf of sail was found to be pretty close to the optimum balance of factors and so that became the most common size for pre-planing (ie, pre-Uffa) boats. Except in the UK, where the Royal Canoe Club had A, B and C class canoes to their own rules that were bigger, heftier boats, some of which almost looked like little half-raters.
Tender? Well, the old guys used to say “no, she’s not tender but it is a good idea to part your hair right in the middle.” In practice, round-bottom 16-30s usually fall over as soon as they’re launched. It may be one of the few boats that is more annoying to get away from the dock than an IC. The hard-chine hull has higher initial stability but also often ends up on its side if no-one is actually driving. Before getting interested in the 16-30s I also had an IC – an old school (centreboard, non-sliding seat carriage) King Ferry Nethercott (US151). I would say that the IC is more muscular and assertive, and certainly a ton faster, whereas the 16-30 is altogether more subtle and high-strung, more like riding a lightweight racing bike with steep frame angles. Having said that, almost everyone I have sent out for a ride on one has come back to the dock after their first trip saying 2 things: “wow, I thought I knew how to sail,” and “I want one.”
Looking forward to seeing your photos. If possible, ask them to take off the deck plates and get some interior construction shots too.
J
Hello John; it took a bit longer to get the pictures than I’d hoped – as usual, a bit of snow and ice over here has caused all kinds of mayhem. However, now that I have them, I can’t see any obvious way of adding them to this message. Am I missing something obvious?
Hello John, Here are some pictures of what I suspect is a 16-30 canoe; I’ve not seen the rig, but the rudder and plate do look as though they might perhaps be original. The helmsman’s seats by the coaming, look to me to have replaced the sliding seat and carriage.
As you can see from the internal images, she has a hard chine hull, which as far as I can tell isn’t that usual for a 16-30, but the tiller arrangement certainly looks like the ones I’ve seen used in the class. Anyway, I’d be very interested in your thoughts, particularly as the college has plans to restore her – which of course will mean coming up with some sort of plan.
Best regards,
Marc
Marc Fovargue-Davies
Research Associate Cambridge Centre for Business Research Judge Business School, University of Cambridge http://www.cbr.cam.ac.uk/
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