| I've been working on my piccup pram since about
December and took it on it's maiden voyage last week.
It still has finishing work to be done, but structurally
it is complete with 99% of the epoxy/fiberglass work
done, flotation installed and a Lug rig tarp sail.
I have kayaked the Jervis Inlet on the coast of British
Columbia many times, and am familiar with the campsites,
pullouts and wind/water conditions, so I decided to
give that a try last week.
 |
I had the boat
going with oars and a motor about two months
before I had the decks, leeboard, rudder and
sail put on. |
My buddy Mike joined me and we sailed the 35 miles
from Egmont, B.C. to the Princess Louisa Inlet and
camped there for a couple of days before heading home.
The wind blows predominately up the inlet in the summer
time, so we were running with the wind the whole time.
| We just pushed off
the dock, ran up the sail (for a picture) but
didn't have any breeze to get us out of the bay.
The sail is simply taped together with duct tape
and then grommeted. One row of reef points were
also added, but never needed on this trip. |
|
 |
Getting underway
with the 2.2 hp motor. |
|  Just
out of the bay and into a slight breeze. We
were able to sail on a reach across to a nearby
island, but the current was flooding and was
too strong for us to make headway with such
light winds. We started the motor again shortly
after this photo was taken.
|
 |
Another shot
of us after just leaving the bay and sailing
with very light wind. Stunning scenery. |
| We left Egmont B.C.
at about 3 pm the first day (Sunday Sept 3rd)
and sailed about 10 miles to our first campsite
and got there at high tide. We fixed dinner and
slept on a pebble beach under clear skies. |
|
|  In
the morning we woke up and found the tide quite
a bit lower than the night before. We took our
time getting ready in the morning because the
wind often doesn't pick up until late morning.
When we could see what looked like a little
breeze out in the middle of the inlet, we hauled
our gear down to the water's edge and then carried
the boat down to the water. I don't know exactly
how much the boat weighs empty, but even with
the motor attached we were able to carry it
down the beach without much difficulty.
|
The piccup sailed great down wind, and a few times
we had enough breeze to get us going about four knots.
I mounted a 2.2 hp outboard to the starboard side
of the rudder on the transom, and that pushed us easily
at 4.5 knots at about 2/3 throttle. When the wind
died down we did some motoring (probably about 12
miles out of the 35).
| Mike takes the tiller
for a while. When we were just going straight,
it worked well to lock the motor in place and
use the rudder and tiller to keep the boat going
straight. For tight turns, turning the motor itself
worked best. |
|
|  Here's
a little close up of the stern of the boat.
I wasn't sure where I wanted the motor to be
attached, so I decided to make the rear deck
temporary. I shaped a peice of styrofoam to
fit snugly in the stern compartment and then
covered it with a peice of scrap 1/4" plywood
to hold it in securely. So, if we had tipped
over we would have had pretty good floatation
back there... fortunately we didn't tip! The
stern compartment made a pretty good seat when
motoring in calm water too. I like the placement
of the little 2.2 hp outboard on the starboard
side of the rudder, and it didn't seem to throw
off the balance of the boat when the boat was
well loaded like we had it.
|
|  This
shows what I used for a front hatch. Kind of
small, but we were able to stow some of our
smaller items in there. The deck itself was
attached with stainless steel screws all around
and a water proof caulking of some kind. I'd
like to eventually have a hatch that I can fit
a 20L dry bag through, but for now this was
quick and easy.
|
I figure the boat was loaded at about maximum capacity
with two men, a weeks worth of food and camping gear
and a small outboard with 2 gallons of fuel. My buddy
Mike weighs about 160, I weigh 185, and we had about
130 lbs of gear... total about 475 lbs I would guess.
I am very pleased withthe boat's ability to carry
that load so well.
|
The boat was
pretty well filled up with Mike, Me and all
of our gear. |
| Just a shot of me
enjoying the ride as we motored up the last reach
of the Jervis Inlet. Unfortunately we didn't have
even a slight breeze on the evening of day two.
We entered the Princess Louisa Inlet on day two
of our trip at about 7:30 pm as the sun was going
down. Day two we probably motored about 3 hours
(12 miles, I'd say). |
|
Anyway, we got more than a few funny looks from boaters
motoring down the inlet in their big yachts as we
sailed up it in our 11 ft pram with a green tarp for
a sail.
 |
Mike enjoying
the ride as we motored the last stretch. |
I can't brag too much, though, because we didn't
end up sailing it back down the inlet. I just wasn't
quite ready to commit to sailing it into the wind
since I have so little experience sailing, and tacking
takes you a little further from the shore than we
had to be when running with the wind. So, we loaded
the pram on a larger vessel and caught a ride back
down the inlet. After getting a little more experience
in the boat and possibly getting a "real"
sail I think I'll give the Jervis inlet another try
and sail it both ways.
So, there you have it... good times on the water.
John Guppy
Seattle, Wa
More about Piccup Pram
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