The Scientific American Boy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 211 pages of information about The Scientific American Boy.

The Scientific American Boy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 211 pages of information about The Scientific American Boy.

A canoe is rather a tipsy thing to sail in, as we soon learned, and it was lucky that we could all swim, else our vacation might have ended very tragically; for the very first time Bill and I tried the boat an unexpected gust of wind struck us and over we went.  We were very poor sailors at first, but it didn’t take us long to catch on.

Lee Boards.

One thing that bothered us greatly in sailing was the keel of our canoe.  It was forever getting twisted, particularly when we tried to make a landing.  There were only a few places along the island where the water was deep enough to permit our coming right up to shore without striking the keel.  The fastening was not very strong, and every once and awhile it would be wrenched loose.  The matter was made the subject of a special letter to Uncle Ed, and in due time his answer was received.  As usual, he offered a first-class solution of the difficulty.  “Don’t use a keel,” he wrote; “lee boards are much better.”  Then he went on to explain what was meant by lee boards:  “The leeward side of a boat is the opposite of the windward side; that is, that side of the boat which is sheltered from the wind.  Lee boards, then, are boards which are hung over the lee side of a boat to prevent it from drifting to leeward, and they serve to take the place of a keel or centerboard.”

[Illustration:  Fig. 121.  A Lee Board.]

[Illustration:  The Indian Canoe Fitted with Lanteen Sail and Lee Boards.]

Following Uncle Ed’s direction we fastened a strip of wood across the canoe about six feet from the bow, nailing it firmly to the gunwales.  This provided a support to which the lee boards were secured.  The lee boards were paddle-shaped affairs of the form and dimensions shown in Fig. 121.  Each paddle near the top was hinged to the end of a board three inches wide and a foot long.  The paddle was held at right angles to the board by means of a hook.  Each board was fastened with door hinges to a baseboard which extended the width of the boat and was attached to the crosspiece of the canoe by means of a couple of bolts.  The bolt heads were countersunk, so that the hinged boards could lie flat over them.  To the top of each lee board two ropes were attached, one passing forward around a pulley and thence back to a cleat within easy reach of the occupant of the canoe, and the other passing directly back to this cleat.  By pulling the former rope the lee board was lifted out of the water, while the latter rope was used to swing the board into working position.  When tacking to port (left), the board on the left side of the canoe was lowered and the other was raised, as shown in Fig. 123, and when tacking to the starboard (right) the board on the right side was lowered, while the left one was raised.

[Illustration:  Fig. 122.  Section of the Canoe, Showing Lee Board.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 123.  The Lee Boards in Use on Canoe.]

The Indian Paddling Canoe.

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The Scientific American Boy from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.