Just a little video showing that the Viola 14 Sailing Canoe has enough stability to stand and hoist the sail or raise or lower the mast while one the water.
Video was put together by Daniel Caselli.
The 75lb Viola by Joost Engelen.
Stability was a necessity. Both for Speed and Low Bridges
Joost in the Netherlands has many low bridges to navigate in cruising. Also for the several distance sailing events he enters each year. We worked out the weights and the stability required to allow lifting the mast out while on the water.
- Drop Sail
- Lift out mast
- Paddle under bridge
- Pick up mast and drop it back in place
- Rehoist sail
- Sail onwards
Video image can take a moment to load.
The boat is great for distance events ok for bridges and great upwind in narrow channels
And led over 100 boats for some time before finishing 11th – one of the smallest boats in the fleet.
What we were thinking about the sailing canoe design
Joost and I wanted a canoe form because of the easy storage and transport. So we started researching different
The International 10sqm Sailing Canoe has a fine entry but quite flattened rear sections. We wanted to achieve this without skewing the sheerline to be too fine at the bow. Or, too wide at the stern. We wanted a more or less symmetrical appearance at the sheer. This also helps prevent the bow from sticking in at speed.
Both because of volume in the bow and the narrowness of the stern. Achieve through panel shape rather than varying the sheer widths.
With the five panel shape we had selected we knew there would be a near vertical side panel and a horizontal bottom panel.
So the bilge panels were twisted from vertical at the bow and horizontal at the back. Making a finer entry and a flatter tail. The aim was to give the boat a dinghy like feeling in terms of stability and gust response.
The bow itself is so narrow that the flat panel never pounds.
A wide stern provides great stability as we see in the video – and I suppose a higher top end. Alternatively can look at it is two methods for strong winds downwind – stay in normal position if transitioning through hullspeed occasionally. Or, if a long fast leg with no speed drops crew can decide to move aft for a bit more top end.
A lesson from modern restricted sail area dinghy design
Like most really efficient modern dinghies the flat section forward provides a lot of lift. The surfaces in the front and middle of the boat are at the right angle of incidence to generate lift right from the start of movement. This has two effects.
- The bow will lift at speed without the crew having to move back in the boat to keep the nose out of the waves. It is assisted by the rocker being a form of a semi circle with longitudinal curvature at the back end. This also helps keep the nose out. It is a similar method used for multihulls. The rocker helping keep the nose out. It is easy to underdo or overdo but we have a number of data points from other designs.
- The lift right through the speed range means the boat doesn’t struggle through “forced mode”. That’s the hullspeed zone – where the drag increases. Unlike the old “long flat run” theory which produces a boat that struggles through forced mode as most of the flat lifting area is at the back of the boat. At the wrong angle. Such long flat run boats can reach prodigious speeds at the top end, but have problems getting through forced mode.
And the crew on the old style long flat straight run boats never know whether to be sitting forward for sub hull speed or cramming back towards the transom to get the planing surfaces to the right angle.
Modern dinghies are much more relaxed than this and Viola demonstrates the dynamic nicely.
More on the Viola 14
The Viola plywood Sailing Canoe plan has the characteristics of a performance sailing dinghy with the portability of a wooden canoe. More Information on the Viola 14