What is the collective noun for a fleet of sailing canoes?

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

My son Alex has owned and sailed an International 10 square metre canoe for almost ten years and in all that time he had never seen another one. He taught himself to sail her, amidst much disapproval from our own club’s dinghy sailors who could not want to see why he persisted with a boat that is so extremely hard to sail.

Thanks to Facebook he got into contact with the largest fleet of Nethercott canoes on the planet, probably in the Universe, and found that they were quite nearby. There were ten of them.

Now there will be 11.

[TerryLL]

That would be known as a raft, especially when they are all upside down waiting for the rescue boat.

[Breakaway]

I like, " splendor," ACB.

A splendor of canoes raced by, sails flashing white.

Kevin

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Ten of them in one place!

Sounds like the nationals.

[rbgarr]

A slide of sailing canoes

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

One canoe:



Six Canoes (two more out of sight!)

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I like, " splendor," ACB.

A splendor of canoes raced by, sails flashing white.

Kevin

So do I. Thanks!

[johnw]

a dunking.

[Benson Gray]

I also like a "splendor" as shown below. A cropped version of this image was used on the first page of the 1929 Old Town Canoe Company catalog with a caption that identified it as being from Coney Island, New York. It is probably showing the Labor Day regatta of the Association of Canoe Clubs of Sheepshead Bay from 1927.

Benson

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Alex heard a tale this afternoon:

One of the ICs in the picture had been pulled up on the beach at Stone Point whilst her owner got his breath back.

A rather dapper elderly chap in a tweed jacket, with pipe, strolled up and said “May I have a go?”

The owner sought to dissuade him, gently pointing out that they are hard to sail, but he was insistent. He did take his shoes and socks off and stuffed his pipe into his jacket pocket.

Off he went, no buoyancy aid, still wearing the tweed jacket; a little hesitant at first, then with growing confidence a few tacks and finally a gybe (this is really hard on an IC), he shot her back up the beach and stepped off.

He was the late Ian Smith, ex World Champion, and builder of Alex’s own Canoe.

[John B]

Since they are probably one of the hardest types to sail, perhaps a Murder of canoes.....

[sp_clark]

I'd proffer a 'haggle'.

After all it's the skippers against wind and water 100% of the time, haggling over who's in charge.

[MushCreek]

Since they are probably one of the hardest types to sail, perhaps a Murder of canoes.....

Shouldn't that be a 'suicide' of canoes?

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Those who sail them say that sailing one ruins all other boats for you.

Also, the Walton on Naze fleet includes cold moulded boats, carbon hulls with plywood decks and all carbon boats and they all race level. It’s not a light weight boat at 83.5kg min weight. People have swapped boats and their positions in the results stayed constant, so the Nethercott IC may be a near perfect one design class…

[johngsandusky]

A "splash" of canoes?

[Ben Fuller]

The rules boats ( tweaked version of the box rule that gave us the Nethercott) does allow for drastic reduction in minimum weight, down to 50 kg. They are faster especially in a breeze and lumpy water. A well sailed Nethercott can do OK. What the seat and tuned mast seem to do is make the boats very tolerant of a wide range of sailors weights except in very light and very heavy air.

[bamamick]

I had a Nethercott. One of the coolest things I ever tried to sail. Scratch that. Definitely the coolest. Note the 'tried to sail' bit. I actually made the six o'clock news around here after getting the rig stuck in the mud and the Coasties sending a boat AND a helicopter out to get me. They ordered me onto the boat, which they planned to leave my canoe right where it was, but I refused unless they helped me get the stick out of the mud. There was actually some guy talking over a loud speaker from the helicopter telling me to get on the boat but in the end I won out. I tied a line to the rig and the guys on the boat pulled it up, and then I hugged the side of their boat while they headed back in. Once we got fairly close I cut them loose and sailed the canoe back onto the beach, as tired as I have ever been.

I wound up giving the boat to my friend Donnie Brennan, the US Olympic boatwright at the time. He gave it to a good young sailor named Karl Kleinschrodt, who raced it in a 'big' event we had at our sailing club, either a nationals or midwinters or something, and yes, there were about ten of them. They are truly, truly awesome boats, and when you get out on that sliding seat and get everything cranked in it is a one-of-a-kind feeling. And tacking isn't that bad. As Andrew says, it's the gybing that'll get you.

Mickey Lake

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Thanks Mickey,

The flock/raft/haggle/dunking/splendour of Nethercott ICs at the Walton and Frinton Yacht Club have concluded that they want an all Nethercott fleet and, counter intuitively, that Walton Backwaters is a good place for canoes, because the wind is completely unobstructed with three miles of salt marsh in every direction, the only commercial traffic is one coaster a month to Great Oakley Works (dynamite) and the banks are all soft mud. This makes up for some creeks being very narrow.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

[keith66]

Our club Benfleet yacht club has an annual race round the Thames estuary called the Nore race, big event open to dinghies & cruisers.
A few years ago we used to get a guy enter an Int Canoe from Wilsonian SC at Upnor on the medway. He would sail from his club down the medway to the start do the race & then sail home again, The course itself is 16 miles minimum, more if you tack. Add that to the sail to & from Upnor he was doing in excess of 50 miles.
I seem to remember it was blowing quite hard & he won the dinghy group by a wide margin beating the fast cats such as Tornado's, darts etc over the water!
To do that & sail to & from home he was a bloody hero!

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

He certainly is!



That’s the American International Canoe Trophy, seen by Alex and I when it was sitting in the Aldeburgh Yacht Club. There are some people who get very very good at ICs.

[bamamick]

iirc Steve Clark is building a new International 110 right now. That’s another great class that it’s good to see stirring.

Mickey Lake

[SchoonerRat]

I can. Canoe?

Back in the '70s, one of the I-14 fleet guys bought one. Although I never saw him go more than 30 or 40 feet without going turtle, he did manage to provide a great deal of entertainment to the rest of the fleet watching, dry and warm, from the upper deck of the yacht club.

[Jon R]

I had US#166 for close thirty years, built by Steve Clark for the German team to use in the 1980 worlds. I never had much success in the IC fleets, but had a ball with the local Wednesday nighters on the Chesapeake. The misconception is that it takes strength to sail one of these, it doesn’t. What you need is balance. Also the faster you go the more stable. Get that pointy bow out of the water and let the flat section aft do its job and you are good to go. All those that need to be rescued after a capsize should learn how to sail a high performance dinghy before attempting an IC. In my 30 years I capsized hundreds of times and in the shallow Chesapeake got the mast stuck more than once and never needed outside assistance. Few boats offer the thrill of an IC. They really aren’t difficult to sail, but you need to have good executive function. By the time you are reacting to something, you are swimming after your capsized boat. I was often accused of having a cheater boat, I always offered to trade boats with my accuser and race heads up, no handicap. No takers. I miss that boat, but my brittle bones can’t do it anymore, so my Typhoon will suffice. And for those who object to my mention of my glass boat I also have the brilliant Ellen, designed and built by John Brooks. Note that I didn’t say ‘an Ellen’ mine is the progenitor of the breed, built for my mother, Ellen..

Cheers and happy canoeing in your Insitance of ICs!

Jon

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Good to go…

[skuthorp]

We have a wooden one sailing at the club, another on the way evidently from West Australia.

[gypsie]

A capsize?