Sailing Canoe "Pirat" by Harvey Golden - FINISHED - c. 1920 from Willy Goepferich's "Der Junge Kanubauer."

[Harvey Golden]

I've had this book on the shelf for years, and was finally inspired to make a model of the canoe featured in it.  The book, which is un-dated, comes with fold-out plans and complete instructions. I'm building it in 3/4"=1' scale, from paper and wood.  First. . . the book: 

The canoe has a lugsail, and perhaps a little pretentiously, a forestay and shrouds.  A daggerboard is used, along with a foot-steered rudder.

I can't read or speak German, but fortunately, Google translate makes quick work of the text, so there won't be any issues there . . .

 
The hull is markedly Swede-form, and has slab sides and a flat bottom.  Just five molds/frames are used to build the boat.  Lofting doesn't get much easier than this.  I inked it right on the paper that will be the hull-- the paper is about 1/16" thick, is dense pressed, and has a very polished finish. . . anyone know what this paper is called? (I get it at the local artists' 'scrap' store.)

After cutting out the panels, I glued up the five frames onto the floor panel.  With this dry, I glued the side panels onto the frames, bending the bottom up at the ends so it's edges mates flush with the curve (rocker) of the side-pieces.  Hmmm . . . I'm almost done!  

[wefalck]

I gather this is coloured Bristol board, in Germany we call this also 'photo-board' or '-paper', depending on the thickness. In France it may run under the name 'Canson-paper', after one of the traditional manufacturers.

 

In the early years of the 20th century there seem to have been quite a few instruction books in Germany on DIY boatbuilding. I have got a DIY-book in a nice Art Noveau binding, given by his best friend to my grandfather in 1915 and then passed on to me by him in 1966 that contains instructions for canoe with painted canvas covering over a wooden frame, a sailing sharpie, a sailing outrigger boat and a 'pedalo', i.e. a dubble hull boat with a paddle-wheel in the middle that is driven from an old bicycle frame. Unfortunately, I never had the resources or the space to build any of these ...

[Harvey Golden]

Thank you Wefalck-- I couldn't remember the name of it.  I'd love to know the title of the book you mention, as it doesn't sound familiar. 

Best, Harvey

[Roger Pellett]

More or less related to this build log:

Many years ago I agreed to build a Folbot canoe/ kayak from a kit for a friend.  His wife wouldn’t let him buy the kit because “He would not be able to build it.”  I solved that problem for him.

 

It is my understanding that Folbots were another of the personal watercraft that originated in Germany in the early 1900’s.  They were literally “folding boats” that could be carried up into the mountains aboard Germain Railroad trains, assembled and paddled downstream.  They were one of the canoes with canvas covering that Wefalck mentions.  

 

The boat that we built did not fold up and was covered with two layers of vinyl.  It was a poor excuse for a boat; heavy and never paddled straight.  My friend eventually gave it to me and when I moved to Duluth I traded it for a restorable wood canvas canoe.

 

Roger

Edited April 29, 2022 by Roger Pellett

[Harvey Golden]

There were quite a number of folding kayak companies in Germany back then-- Klepper is one that is still around; I think Nautiraid in France goes way back, too, but not as old as Klepper (1911?).  I think Folbot might be English in origin, but it moved to the U.S. at some point.  Here's a link to a German folding canoe/kayak site . . . gives a hint at just how popular these were: http://www.faltbootbasteln.de  

 

Recreational paddling in the West has an interesting history, I suppose starting with John MacGregor and his immensely popular "Rob Roy" canoeing adventures, as well as the travels of Nathaniel Bishop.  The emerging middle class, the concept of week-ends, outdoor health, light weight portable vessels (to build or buy), gave many the chance to captain their own yacht.  Indigenous designs from North America were quite influential to this movement.  

[wefalck]

Sorry, my post duplicates some of the above, because it was written at the same time ...

 

 

The book's bibliographic reference is:

 

Kern, M. (1915): Selbst ist der Mann - Ein neues Beschäftigungsbuch bei Sonnenschein.- 291 p., Stuttgart/Berlin/Leipzig (Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft).

 

Incidentally, that's the same publisher as for your book. The canvas-canoe described in the book is not a folding one, but looks like an Indian bark-canoe. I should scan the respective pages from the book and put them up here ...

 

Folbot didn'r ring a bell, but seems to be a sort of brand in the US according to what I saw on the Internet. The name seems to be corruption from the German term 'Faltboot', which means folding boat. On Wikipedia, there is a bit of history of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding_kayak.

 

Essentially, it is a light wooden frame with metal fastenings over which a canvas cover is stretched. The canvas is rubberised below the waterline and made water repellent above it. The most known German manufacturer was Klepper and hence they were also known as 'Klepper-Boote'. They were made as one- and two-seaters. A school-friend of mine had one and if I remember correctly it stowed in three backpack-size bags. In this way it could be be transported easily as luggage on the railway. I think they made also a two-wheeled carriage that served for both, carrying the bags and the set-up boat for launching. It then could be strapped to the 'deck', as these kajaks were meant for river-hiking. There was also a rig available with a small fore-sail and a boom-less gaff-sail with a very steep gaff. Leeway was controlled by a couple of metal lee-boards suspended from a kind of bridge across the coaming. In addition, a one-cyclinder 1.5 hp side-board engine (manufactured by a company called König) was available, that was mounted to a wooden plate that screwed to the coaming near the rear seat. Steering was by a two-part rudder with a lowering blade. It was controlled by two wire-ropes leading to foot-pedals at the rear seat.

 

We once took my friends Klepper to Lake Constance and improvised a sailing rig. It wasn't a long trip though, as we soon capsized, but luckily close to the lake shore.

 

Around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century a bit of a canoe/kajak craze seems to have been developed following the publishing of John MacGregor book "A Thousand Miles in a Rob Roy Canoe on Rivers and Lakes of Europe in 1866 and further accounts of his travels.

 

There is a forthcoming article in NEPTUNIA on a recently discovered original Rob Roy canoe that belonged to Emperor Napoleon III's son and later in the year there will be a further article in NEPTUNIA by your's truly on boating on the river Seine, that also discusses kajaking in the late 19th century (for French speakers that is) ...

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by wefalck

[Harvey Golden]

Thank you again, Eberhardt.  That book looks pretty interesting, sort of along the lines of "The Boy Mechanic" series popular here in the early 1900s.  I look forward to seeing your Neptune article-- are the 'kayaks' of the Perissoire form?  (Those are another boat type of interest to me). 

 

Folbot made both folding and non-folding kayaks as well as kits.  Of course, any kayak or canoe is a folding type if one puts in the effort. . . .

[Harvey Golden]

Some more progress:  I carved the curved deck beams that fit to the frame molds. The middle one will have stub beams to support the coaming's inner carlins, as it is in the middle of the cockpit.  Also glued up the centerboard trunk and cut the slot in the hull. 

I didn't get a photo of the carlins in place, but you can see them below adjacent the cockpit; the deck is in place!

The Swede-form hull is very evident in these pictures. 

Mostly done, but a lot of little things to add . . . 

[wefalck]

Yes, the NEPTUNIA-article also talks about perissoirs, which were, as the name indicates, quite perilous craft. The Musée de la Batellerie (Inland Shipping Museum) in Conflans-St. Honorine (near Paris) has several specimen, one of which was home-built. 

 

I have taken some rough and ready images of the relevant pages in the book mentioned above:

 

 

[bruce d]

Folboats were among the original equipment of the SBS and SAS, I believe a couple are preserved in UK museums. 

Interesting model, looking forward to the next steps. 👍

[Harvey Golden]

5 hours ago, wefalck said:

Yes, the NEPTUNIA-article also talks about perissoirs, which were, as the name indicates, quite perilous craft. The Musée de la Batellerie (Inland Shipping Museum) in Conflans-St. Honorine (near Paris) has several specimen, one of which was home-built. 

Thank you for posting these-- that's quite a beautiful book.  I've made a Perissoire model from the book below-- from ca. 1944; I'll probably build one full-size at some point.  Thank you also for the mention of that museum-- hope to visit someday.  Best, H-

 

[Harvey Golden]

Picked some colors for the canoe-- sort of mirroring the colors on the cover of the book, but still off-the-shelf colors. The brightwork of the coaming, floorboards and stems is redwood.  A little trim will clean up the sides/deck joint. 

I'm also building this canoe full-size.  I'm using marine plywood instead of solid planking as spec'd in the instructions. 

 

 

[wefalck]

The musem has a collection of boats from the late 19th and (mainly) early 20th century, but one can only visit it on special occasions. Unfortunately, the decided to dramatise the display by varying the light colour and, hence, photographs look rather weird. Therefore, I only have B/W-photographs, here of a two-seater perissoire:

The painter Caillebotte was an interesting personality in the era of Impressionism. As an industrial heir, he supported e.g. Renoir and Monet, was a successful yachtsman, racing sailing-yachts that he designed himself and had built in his own boat-yard at the Seine river. In younger years he seems to have done a lot of canoeing on Yerres, a tributary of the Seine, upstream of Paris, where his family had villa, as evidenced by his paintings:

Gustave Caillebotte (1877): Périssoires. National Gallery of Art, Washington, public domain.

 

Part of the book of Sergent can be found here as images: http://alain-tardif.fr/archive/Planssergentcanoes.html

 

And an interesting blog on the building and use of modern replicas: https://lespoissonsdesarbres.blogspot.com/2012/01/construction-dune-perissoire-1.html

 

For someone living in a city apartment, such thing can only be a dream ...

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by wefalck

[Harvey Golden]

Working on the steering gear, etc. The canoe has a wooden pedal-steering unit, with lines that run back through the cockpit to the rudder horns. Also, the daggerboard is made, sheer trim in place, and a perfectly sized brass grommet for the mast hole. 

The full-size is progressing well, too.  Building the model has sure streamlined the process for full-size, but quite the difference in time, cost, and material quality though!

 

 

 

[Harvey Golden]

The Segelkanu is nearly done!  The rudder is in place and the steering lines are run through the coaming back, through fairleads on the coaming sides, and to the foot pedals.  The mast is stepped, and the forestay and shrouds in place. (I think it's quite pretentious to have these on a vessel this size, but I admire the designer's restraint in not including a bowsprit.) Just need to whip up a sail and all is done. . .

I found an old postcard of a similar vessel.  It is labeled a "Perissoire," being French, but unlike many French Perissoires, this example has slab (plumb) sides.  The fore-deck is a bit of a mystery-- looks lumpy for some reason.  The admiral's haughty contempt is rather charming, though I pity her crew:

Lastly, the full-size-- woefully behind the model's progress. . . 

[Harvey Golden]

Completed.  Just a scrap of book-cloth for the sail-- holds a nice shape. I could add sail lacing to yard and boom, but the artist in me says 'done.'  Here's pics of the completed model, followed by a bit more old ephemera, including another book by Willy Goepferich, this one on how to build a folding kayak (no date, ca. late 40s).  Thanks for following! --Harvey

 

Ca. 1938

 

 

 

[bruce d]

On 5/3/2022 at 6:45 PM, Harvey Golden said:

fore-deck is a bit of a mystery-- looks lumpy for some reason.

Hmmmmm. That is about where the feet of a grown man would be if he was the captain.

[ccoyle]

Nice work, Harvey, on an interesting and unusual subject!

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!  Nicely done!

[Harvey Golden]

Made a nice little stand for the model-- much needed with that deep daggerboard!

Yesterday's activity, below:

 

[Jim Lad]

Just found your log as you finished your model! 

 

You've done a really nice job on that, Harvey.

 

John

[Harvey Golden]

Thank you John.  Small and simple sure goes quickly. 

 

[FreekS]

Nice model - and very useful info for my just started build of my grandfathers “sail canoe/ferry” for which I only have a few images!  Nice!

 

[Harvey Golden]

1 hour ago, FreekS said:

Nice model - and very useful info for my just started build of my grandfathers “sail canoe/ferry” for which I only have a few images!  Nice!

 

Thank you!  I'd love to see pics of your project and the original canoe.

[FreekS]

1914. Only photo I have - Build log just started!

[Christhomas]

That is a beautiful model!...I love sailing canoes. 

Most interested in your 1:1 scale job too! How does it go?

Would there be any chance of you putting up pics of all the plan?

Cheers 

[mtaylor]

2 hours ago, Christhomas said:

That is a beautiful model!...I love sailing canoes. 

Most interested in your 1:1 scale job too! How does it go?

Would there be any chance of you putting up pics of all the plan?

Cheers 

If the plans are still under copyright, the answer should be "no".  But he can tell you where he got the plans.

[lmagna]

On 5/3/2022 at 10:45 AM, Harvey Golden said:

looks lumpy for some reason

I think it is just an area of canvas stretched over hoops to cover the persons legs.

[KeithAug]

Thanks for sharing. its always goods to see something unusual.

[Harvey Golden]

On 7/16/2022 at 3:17 PM, Christhomas said:

That is a beautiful model!...I love sailing canoes. 

Most interested in your 1:1 scale job too! How does it go?

Would there be any chance of you putting up pics of all the plan?

Cheers 

Thank you!  The plans are at the top of the thread-- or near it. The book doesn't have a copyright date, but I've seen it noted as 1920 elsewhere, so it is public domain by now.  The 1:1 is fine-- had it in 10+ mph winds and light chop just today.  I would like a lower seat, i.e. center of gravity, and my steering system has a few kinks to work out, but it is a fun lively sailing canoe, though perhaps better suited to lighter winds.  The sail I used is not as-per the original specs.  Instead, I used an old poorly-made canvas balanced lug I had laying around-- one that has a batten, and is perhaps a little smaller than the spec'd sail. Here's a buddy in it just the other day:

Best, Harvey