Playing With Boats

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.