Hobie
The Hobie Tri-Foiler is best for experienced sailors. I have a Hobie Mirage Adventure (not the Island) and the small Hobie sail. The Island trimaran gives you the most bang for your buck. The others (Warren, Triak, etc) are pretty expensive. The best thing about a Hobie Mirage is the Mirage pedal system. Once you go Hobie, you’ll never go back.
light, seaworthy and portage friendly
My experience leaves me believing that for tripping with portages you pretty much ought to give up on upwind performance. The leeboard plus hardware plus the tall stiff rig all add considerable weight on the portage trail. Even then a good paddling hull won’t sail to wind as well as most of us hope. I can easily paddle upwind faster than any sail rig I’ve encountered.
If like me, you end up paddling at least part of the time, changing from sailing mode to paddling mode and back is a pain. Tall masts cause the hull to sway. Leeboards get in the way of the paddle.
I’ve settled for the time being on a home made down wind rig with a 6’ mast and spar.
It weighs just under 3 lbs, goes up or down in 1 minute, and has almost no impact on paddling.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2926782450101700075ylZPxt?vhost=outdoors
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2772418440101700075rVGfom
You could
– Last Updated: Mar-07-11 2:48 PM EST –
restore this one in your spare time. It's a great canoe in good shape for it's age with rather unusual wide special order gunwales. 55 sq.ft. Lateen sail, mast, booms, leeboards, rudder etc. Price is decent too.
link to classified ad:
http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=6307