Viola 14 Sailing Canoe. Dinghy stability with canoe compactness

The idea was a boat that handles like a good racing dinghy, but is much easier to store and transport. Rooftop.

It morphed into a sailing canoe form. Not like the normal symmetrical paddling based sailing canoe, but a stable dinghy form with a flatter wider stern and a reasonably fine entry. But the bow comes with a narrow planing surface the length of the boat that keeps the bow from doing anything silly as the boat accelerates. The crew don't need to move to control the trim. The boat does it by itself.

Weight came out at 75lbs for the hull with all attached fittings. 4 sheet 4mm (5/32) gaboon/okoume plywood. Timber quantity has been kept low for locations outside North America where timber is expensive.

There are three rig options for this plywood sailing canoe. Most people will choose the 4.7sq m Bermudan Square top sail. Very experienced sailors may choose the 6.0sq m Bermudan Square Top sail. Both these sails have one reef, but you need to be ashore to put them in. The spars are standard aluminium tubes to make a 2 piece mast

The 6.3 balance lug rig has three reefs for RAID and Expedition sailing. It can be reefed and unreefed on the water. Mast can be standard aluminium tube or timber. Yard and boom are from a specific carbon windsurfer mast ($200) or timber.

Stability is sufficient for Joost to stand and get the rig down for passing under low bridges (A hazard of Dutch RAID events) while afloat.

Surprisingly when the stronger wind came up Viola 14 was able to keep going when larger and heavier boats with more crew were pulling over to the side. She excelled in both light and strong wind.