POWER OPTIONS FOR PUDDLEDUCK

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PuddleDUCk can be rowed, but for adequate leverage you will have to build a pair of outriggers on each side to move the oarlocks a foot or more outboard the hull. You can buy sliding-seat/outrigger units that will fit into the boat for $500 to $2,500. Look for ads in the paddle-sport magazines.

For a whole lot less money, you can make your own outriggers from PVC or galvanized plumbing pipe. They can even be fitted with a pair of free-standing sponsons fashioned from quarter-size replicas of the boat hull. (See the illustration.) Make oars like 7' to 9' singlebladed paddles with rounded handles whittled to fit the paddler's hand.

Or ...Go Pond Sailing Sailing canoes were all the rage in the 'Teens and Roaring '20s, and they are regaining popularity in modern paddlesport. You can purchase sailing rigs from the same canoe and kayak makers that sell rowing rigs, but prices rise into four figures.

Making your own can be as complex or as simple as you like. An old bedsheet, folded over a 4'-long cross-spar tied to the top of a 7' tall sapling lashed to the foredeck, and with lengths of clothesline tied to each lower corner for you to hang onto will take you sailing before the wind at a surprisingly good clip.

The sprit-sail/leeboard rig illustrated is about as basic as you can get and still have a sailboat that will "tack"—or sail into the wind. For this setup you will need proper rope. (For the record, all medium-large cordage is called rope. Cut it to length and give it a job and the length of rope becomes a line. Each line has a name such as the halyard, sheet, and snotter (see illustration below).

Buy about 40' of inexpensive hardwarestore 3/8" nylon all-purpose braided rope (but not cheap clothesline). Plus a roll of 1/4" nylon cord. For the main sheet—the rope that controls the sprit sail and which you hold onto—you'll be happiest with 1/2" soft nylon from a yachting supplies outlet. T'aint cheap, but get 12' or 15' of it. The extra expense will save you a blister or two.

Rudder For before-the-wind travel you can use a paddle levered against one side or shipped into thole pins in the stern and secured there (so it won't float up and out) with cord bound in tight figure-eights around notches carved in the tops of the pegs.

But to steer and counter the sideways movement imparted by a sail moving across the wind you need a proper rudder.

Following the illustration, make the rudder from build-up forms cut from 3/8" plywood. Tape and epoxy for greatest strength and hinge from the transom using anything from proper brass or chromeplate sailboat hardware to common brass door hinges.

Sailing Rig

The most elementary sail plan you can fashion is a spritsail rig ...a four-sided sail with an angled upper margin and a spritboom (horizontal spar) that angles across the loosefooted sail.

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