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My wife and I spent a couple of days around St. Michaels, Maryland - a small town on the Chesapeake Bay with a long maritime tradition, mainly centered around oysters and crabs. We came across an interesting wooden boat, unlike any I've ever seen - the sailing log canoe. This is an adaptation of the traditional “dug-out” canoe built by native Americans. The dug out is just that – hollowed out of a single large log using simple tools and fire to remove the wood from the interior of the boat.
The sailing log canoe was adapted into a sailboat in the late 1800’s and few of these boats remain today. Three to five large pine logs are carved to shape the boat. So the boat is long a quite skinny. Here is an excerpt from a local book – “Tradition, Speed and Grace Chesapeake Bay Sailing Log Canoes” by John C. North
“The Tilghman Island/ St. Michaels canoes were generally built of three to five logs with relatively fine ends. They tended to be fairly low sided and carried maximum beam about mid-ship. They were equipped with two masts and carried a sizable, long-footed jib on a boom that extended well beyond the end of the bowsprit.
The first recorded log canoe race took place near St. Michaels in 1859 for the Douglas Cup. As interest in racing grew, boats were designed and built with speed in mind rather than simple utility. Hulls were constructed with thinner logs, narrower beam and finer ends. Two masts rather than one were stepped, and a sail plan evolved with three sails – jib, foresail, and mainsail. (Despite the after mast being shorter, it was called the mainmast.)
All this sail spelled instability. This problem was met by placing crew on springboards – sometimes called singing boards – which were planks a foot wide and 12 to 16 feet long. One end of the board went under the leeward washboard, while the other end extended to windward to support an athletic crewman who was ideally fast, strong, and heavy. Tacking was tricky. If the heavy boards – sometimes as many as six on the largest boats – were not shifted at just the right moment, a capsize was certain. Jibes were frightening and to be avoided if at all possible. It was understood that all hands on a canoe had to be capable swimmers.”
So here's and old photo of the construction of a five log boat:
IMG_20230601_135621.jpg
And here's a photo of a crew out on the spring boards:
IMG_20230601_135750.jpg
And a couple of racers with full sail:
IMG_20230601_135828.jpg
IMG_20230601_135733.jpg
The sailing log canoe was adapted into a sailboat in the late 1800’s and few of these boats remain today. Three to five large pine logs are carved to shape the boat. So the boat is long a quite skinny. Here is an excerpt from a local book – “Tradition, Speed and Grace Chesapeake Bay Sailing Log Canoes” by John C. North
“The Tilghman Island/ St. Michaels canoes were generally built of three to five logs with relatively fine ends. They tended to be fairly low sided and carried maximum beam about mid-ship. They were equipped with two masts and carried a sizable, long-footed jib on a boom that extended well beyond the end of the bowsprit.
The first recorded log canoe race took place near St. Michaels in 1859 for the Douglas Cup. As interest in racing grew, boats were designed and built with speed in mind rather than simple utility. Hulls were constructed with thinner logs, narrower beam and finer ends. Two masts rather than one were stepped, and a sail plan evolved with three sails – jib, foresail, and mainsail. (Despite the after mast being shorter, it was called the mainmast.)
All this sail spelled instability. This problem was met by placing crew on springboards – sometimes called singing boards – which were planks a foot wide and 12 to 16 feet long. One end of the board went under the leeward washboard, while the other end extended to windward to support an athletic crewman who was ideally fast, strong, and heavy. Tacking was tricky. If the heavy boards – sometimes as many as six on the largest boats – were not shifted at just the right moment, a capsize was certain. Jibes were frightening and to be avoided if at all possible. It was understood that all hands on a canoe had to be capable swimmers.”
So here's and old photo of the construction of a five log boat:
IMG_20230601_135621.jpg
And here's a photo of a crew out on the spring boards:
IMG_20230601_135750.jpg
And a couple of racers with full sail:
IMG_20230601_135828.jpg
IMG_20230601_135733.jpg
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