POWER OPTIONS FOR PUDDLEDUCK

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If PVC spars bend over much under sail, you can get a length of the next small er size(s) and slip inside the larger pipe. Once rigid enough, seal the ends with pipe end-caps.

Epoxy 1/2" eyebolts into both ends of the sprit. In the upper eye, secure 18" of 1/8" nylon cord or "piggin' string" to tie sail to sprit at the peak. At the mast-end, splice or loop one end of a 5' length of 3/8" rope for the "snotter."

Making the Sail

The best materials for a small-boat sail are lightweight (4 or 6 ounce) Dacron sailcloth or 1.5 ounce Ripstop nylon. Both are uncommonly strong and tear-resistant. Dacron comes in 36" widths and Ripstop in 54" widths—both cost about $9 a yard.

Sails can be made of the cloth as it comes. Better is to split the cloth down the middle to make 16"- or 24"-wide panels (when seamed). But PuddleDuck isn't competing for America's Cup, and she'll go with any sheer, tight-woven fabric you can locate. A ripstop tarp, tent fly, or camper's ground cloth will do (and may not have to be trimmed much or at all).

Make the sprit sail from three or more panels—as indicated on the plan. Bind all edges over and sew in triangular reinforcements or "gussets" of light canvas at each of the four corners to hold grommets of metal or circles edge—bound with nylon thread so that rope passing through them won't chafe the sail. For longest sail life, sew 2" Dacron edging tape into the long, mast-side edge—the luff—and the lower edge—the foot—of the sail.

The Leeboard

To tack, you need some sort of deep keel extension to counter the wind pressure on your sail, or the hull will be blown sideways rather than forward. Some sailboats have permanent keels; many smaller designs have a centerboard that is pushed down through a narrow, openended trunk fastened in the center of the hull. PuddleDuck is too small to sport a trunk without losing most of her cockpit area, so Will has designed a leeboard that can be pinned or lashed to the side and will serve the same purpose as a fixed keel. Big, bulbousbowed, shallow-draft Dutch sailing canal boats have two leeboards, one for each tack. PuddleDuck will sail fine with just one.

Rigging the Sprit Sail

Run a 20' length of 3/8" rope through the mast-top block. To one end of this "main halyard," attach a snap-ring to fit the grommet in the upper-forward corner (the throat) of the mast-side vertical edge, or "luff " of the sail.

At the "tack" of the sail (the lower forward corner) fasten a 2' length of 3/8" rope we'll call the "downhaul."

Tie the short length of cord you fastened at one end of the boom to the grommet in the sail "peak"—the upper edge of the after margin of the sail, the leech.

Run the end of the longer rope tied to the other end of the boom through the pulley fastened halfway up the mast. This is the boom halyard or "snotter."

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