Adventure Racing Holiday Gifts: Day 8

Posted by Grant on 10. December 2009 20:42

OK, enough with the little toys, I'm at gift #8 and I've hardly gotten to any big items.  Maybe we need 24-days of Christmas?  

This next item is sure to attract attention at the next adventure race.  It may be good attention in that you move a bit faster through the race paddling legs; it may be bad attention in that you swamp your boat and are out of control on the water -- it could be the "what were they thinking?" sort of attention.  Either way, I think it'd be fun to see it in action.

Gift idea #8 is a sail that attaches to your kayak or canoe, and one that deploys quickly and without permanently altering the boat.  It's light weight, so you can squeeze it into a paddle gear bin (or even your backpack) -- and doesn't require much to get setup.  At least that's what the promotional material says!  And yes, it works for canoes as well as kayaks (notice the photo at right showing a canoe rigged up). It's hand-free, unlike some kites or other produts out there; this is key so you can paddle and steer the boat with the sail deployed.  It also has a clear panel allowing line of sight through the sail, or else you would literally be moving blindly down the river. I think this would take practice, so it's not the sort of item that automatically boosts your paddling speed right away, but I think in the right scenarios this could be a nice advantage.

I see these canoe and kayak sails and I immediately think of two things:

1) There was a team that fell asleep in their canoe in Untamed New England 2008.  We have some video footage of them sleeping while the boat floats lazily down the river, angling from side to side in a haphazard manner.  This was on the final day of racing, so they had been pushing themselves for 2 full days by this point.  I can picture this gift idea, a canoe sail attachment, being a nice supplement for when your paddling abilities are -- shall we say -- compromised?

2) We planned a race several years ago through Virginia's Atlantic barrier islands, and there were some windy sections where teams improvised sails out of trashbags or their dry bags.  This gift idea would have been perfect in that scenario, and I can envision a squadron of kayaks with sails out on the ocean.

I understand that once you get experience with this sort of thing, you don't need the wind to be directly at your back to see some speed benefits.  If you properly set the sail up, you can leverage wind power to advance you on the water in a wide variety of conditions.

Some races have prohibitions against paddle sails or attachments like this, so you'd need to check before bringing a sail like this to your next race.  I also think that at first glance, racers might see this as a way to get out of doing some paddle training -- they'll count on the sail being able to do the work for them.  To the contrary, I think this sort of device would require MORE time on the water so you can read conditions and be comfortable with when to use the sail, and when not to.  Instead of reducing the need for paddle training, this will increase it.  Maybe as a "toy" that encourages more training time in the boat, this device is a worthwhile investment regardless of whether you can use it in the next race.  I know I get bored paddling up and down the same lake, and this could certainly make things interesting on the breezy days!

Am I endorsing this sail as a "good idea" and a guaranteed winner?  No, not at all.  I have a lot of questions like "can I really see around the big sail in the front of the boat" and "is this worth the hassle?"   But I am intrigued.  And I think one thing is for sure, this sail system for kayak/canoes will certainly make for some good adventure stories no matter how successful or unsuccessful they are at helping you to the finish line of your next adventure race.