"Macgregor" Sailing Canoes
Designer:
Specifications:
Price:
Pictures:
- Planking Up
- Gluing on the keel
- Gluing on the rubrails
- Faired and sanded
- Hull painted
- Gluing shearclamps & floors
- Decks & coaming installed
- Finished boat
- Yellowbird
- Firebird rigged
- Firebird detail-1
- Firebird detail-2
- Ready to go
- Transporting 2 canoes
- Transporting 1 canoe
- Boats launched
- Paddling
- Sailing
Construction:
"Firebird" and "Yellowbird" are two double paddle sailing canoes, identical except for color, built from an updated "Macgregor" design drawn by Scottish designer Iain Oughtred. They are strip planked in 3/16" white cedar and sheathed in fiberglass in epoxy (4 oz. cloth on inside and 6 oz. on outside). This gives the hulls superior abrasion resistance, with the same weight and strength as 3/16" marine plywood. 2 watertight compartments fore and aft give some dry storage space and flotation. Hatches, floors, floorboards and backrests are made of cedar. Coaming, keel, rudder head and tiller are cherry. The kick-up rudder and leeboard are laminated from alternating grain pieces of cherry and streamlined. All exposed wood is sealed with epoxy and varnished. The leeboard is tethered amidships and has 5 lbs of lead incorporated to keep it sunk when in use.
All spars are hollow spruce, with jaws, cleats, eyes, fairleads and other small fittings shaped from apple. Sails are made of 4 oz. dacron by Michelle Stevens Sailloft, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. For propulsion when the breezes are not blowing there is a cedar double paddle with spoon blades that breaks into two halves for storage under the port side deck. A light frame is supplied for cartopping.