On the bank of the Macatawa River

On the bank at Lake Powell

XCR owners, Kellan Hatch and Ben Algera have been putting their boats to good use over the last couple of weeks. If you have been following this site, then you have already been introduced to both of them through previously posted pieces.

Benjamin Algera ready to push-off

Ben has just completed a very fun paddling cruise with his Dad,  John Algera, on the waters of Lake Macatawa and the Macatawa/Black River in and around the city of Holland, Michigan. http://www.bensboats.blogspot.com/

John Algera about to face the unknown

The Hatch family explore the red rock canyons of Lake Powell

Kellan’s adventure was quite a bit different, as he went to Utah’s scenic Lake Powell with his family as a part of the annual Lake Powell Messabout. http://deviantwind.blogspot.com/ 

In the original article introducing the XCR sailing canoe, I suggested that the boat was incredibly versatile, allowing for a wide latitude of coastal adventure cruising. The modular componentry of the design gives the XCR owner enormous choices as to how to enjoy a boating experience. The boat can be configured as a sailing trimaran, complete with 2 hp outboard as seen in most of the pictures of Kellan’s weekend on Lake Powell.

Sunday morning sunrise at the Hite ramp, Lake Powell, Utah

The XCR can also be used in its base form, which is a fast, responsive and very stable decked tripping canoe, such as is shown in the photos of the Algera’s paddling outings.

The XCR canoe is right at home in confined thin water

The paddled canoe and fully expressed sailing trimaran applications are fairly obvious within the modular approach. What isn’t so obvious, is the boat’s ability to be used as an incredibly stable motor launch for leisurely powered outings.

Cruising the XCR as a quiet and quick motor launch

Lily Hatch relaxes while Kellan tops-up the Honda

With the main hull now successfully launched and then paddled briefly with his wife and kids, Ben has taken the first important step towards the completion of his XCR.

Sailing and paddling trips await Ben with this boat as it can seemlessly morph from a straight-up decked tripping canoe to a very nice sailing trimaran in minutes.

There are all sorts of photos of Ben’s build progress at his Blog site.  http://www.bensboats.blogspot.com/ 

Take a few moments to scan through his entries and you can see for yourself how easy it is to build an XCR of your own.

Solo Tripping in a very responsive package

Right up front, I’m going to give a full tip o’ the cap to John Winters, Canadian boat designer, for the inspiration to design this particular canoe. John’s Osprey II S&G design is a beautiful example of a designer bringing his enormous skills to the worktable. I wanted to draw a solo, tripping style canoe for 4mm marine plywood construction, so I took a long look at the Osprey to see if there was anything I could do differently with the form.

In Winters’ design, there is a very nice, tumblehome chine along the shear to give additional paddle stroke clearance. I have built boats before that used a similar tumblehome panel and it turns out that they can give the builder some interesting problems when it comes to constructing the hull.

This tumblehome chine is very slender in width, which requires the builder to have a reasonable set of skills to wire it in place prior to filleting or they will end-up with a potentially wavy hull section that just won’t go away short of doing it over. Since I was looking to draw the Bighorn for easier construction for the average guy, I decided to drop the tumblehome panel and instead raise the outer hull panel to maintain freeboard. The result is a six panel hull that is easy to build and nice looking.

Specifications
Length - 15′
Width - 30″
Draft @ 280 lbs. - 3.8″
Weight (estimated) - 42 lbs.
Rocker-bow - 2.3″
Rocker-stern - 1.8″

The hull shape is asymmetric in form with the widest point (and it’s center of buoyancy) just aft of the hulls’ midpoint. The hull also has decidedly enhanced rocker fore and aft when compared to traditional canoes of this size. These two design features give the boat very solid, straight-line tracking, as well as wonderful response to turning stroke input from the paddler.

At full, 350-lb. displacement load, the Bighorn has just less than 8” of freeboard amidships. I don’t see this kind of load in this boat unless the owner is going out for a very long solo trip and needs to carry a lot of gear. More likely, you’ll be seeing an all-up, ready for trouble, load of around 290-300 pounds, depending on the weight of the paddler. I figure this boat can be built at right around 42 pounds, providing the guy with the resin doesn’t get too generous with the glue.

The seat setup in the renderings illustrates my take on an integrated unit recognizing the typical canoeists needs when out paddling. There’s a comfortable, sculptural sitting area much like the tractor-style seats one sees on the Wenonah canoes. It is coupled with an integrated pocket on one side for camera/binocular/etc. and on the other side… a circular, net bottomed opening to hold the beverage of your choice. (Ever had a can of coke tip over in your canoe while paddling because there was nowhere secure to hold it? Makes for a fun clean-up session, doesn’t it?)

If you don’t care for the integrated seating system, you can always use the traditional, woven caned seat, a simple, stretched canvas platform or a woven-webbing seat. For that matter, you could always buy a tractor seat from Wenonah.

Outside the typical description of a solo canoe introduction, I decided to include a little extra teaser for those so inclined. I drew a set of outriggers specifically for this boat.

They aren’t fancy in appearance, but they are very simple to build, easy to use and they provide enormous stability to the boat if you’d like to fish, shoot pictures, take a nap, shoot birds, etc. If you were so inclined, they can also be used with a modest sail rig to allow the Bighorn to be sailed like a trimaran, though don’t be expecting these amas, or the suggested sail rig size of 30 sq. ft., to provide much more than a pleasant sailing experience. Still, it could be fun on the right body of water.

Plans for the seat system are available for $20 and plans for the amas and mounting points in the canoe are $50.

Chris Ostlind
Lunada Design
Chris@Wedgesail.com