The kayaks in this video are Jackson Journeys. They are 14 feet long and 25 inches wide. If you have a properly sized sail when kayak sailing, it is very unlikely the sail will make you tip over. With just a little bit of common sense you can easily avoid tipping over. The Falcon 1.0 or even 1.4 square meter sails on reasonable / normal wind days, will not push your boat over even if it were empty in your yard. The sails can give you a good amount of propulsion without creating much tipping forces. Your best tool for avoiding flipping your kayak is common sense. Do not go out in big winds until you feel in control. Drop your sail if you do not feel 100% in control. You can drop a Falcon Sail in seconds by simply releasing the forestay cleat. If you set your kayak up on land and let the wind fill the sail with air, only a significant wind will capsize your kayak. Most people will not go out when it is that windy. Once you add the weight of your body to a kayak, the wind on a reasonable day will not push you over. Once there is a lot of wind this can change. Especially on a narrow tippy kayak. It does not take long to get comfortable with moderate wind and to recognize the wind has grown to a higher level. You can easily lower your sail any time you like. You can drop a Falcon Sail in seconds by releasing the forestay cleat. As you are learning how to sail go out in light winds and practice lowering your sail. It is very easy to do. All you must do is release your forestay cleat and the mast and sail will fold down to your deck. If you are not comfortable or are concerned you can add a pair of outriggers to your kayak. If you want some easy to set up and use outriggers, Hobie Side Kicks are easy to rig, very effective, reasonably priced, and easy to find. Before you try outriggers, you should rig your sail on your kayak and give it a try in light winds. Chances are good you will feel comfortable without using outriggers. 19 out of 20 falcon kayak sailors will never use outriggers. Of the people who use outriggers, a good percentage of them abandon using them after not much time. A lot of kayaks are very stable. If you have a stable kayak, you will probably not want outriggers. If you are the kind of person who is attracted to tippy kayaks you will probably not like outriggers so much. They add bulk, weight, complication, rigging time, and drag. Of all our customers, only very few make this investment, and in the end, most who try using outriggers will abandon them if they ever use them at all. They get in the way and slow you down. Efficiency is very important for upwind performance. A little bit of dragging in the water goes a long way in reducing your ability to sail up wind. On the other hand, if you feel like you need them, or they would just make you feel more comfortable it is perfectly okay to use outriggers.
I have kayak sailed for a long time. I have slowly advanced my skills. I take a lot of chances and have gone for a swim before. On the other hand, if I wanted to stay upright always, I would stay upright. The last swim I went for was about 10 years ago. And as usual I was asking for it. If I want to avoid capsizing I can. There are lot of ways to avoid it, but it takes experience our outriggers to be assured of not swimming. In the end common sense will keep you upright. On this day we had 5 kayak sailors pushing our limits and nobody capsized. This is typical. Some people do not have good balance or are heavy in their upper body or not coordinated and they tend to capsize. Most people who kayak sail do not have a problem with this. The long story short if you are careful you can avoid capsizing. The big thing to do is avoid big winds and be careful what days you choose to go out. Here is some canned text on outriggers that touches on some of these factors and thinking on the issue. #Outriggers #Amas =================================================== You do not need outriggers or amas to balance your kayak. Our 1.0 or even 1.4 square meter sails on reasonable / normal wind days, will not push your boat over even if it were empty in your yard. It is unusual for someone kayaking sailing with a Falcon Sail to use outriggers. The sails can give you a good amount of propulsion without creating much tipping forces. If you set your kayak up on land and let the wind fill the sail with air, only a significant wind will capsize your kayak. Most people will not go out when it is that windy. Once you add the weight of your body to a kayak, the wind on a reasonable day will not push you over. Once there is a lot of wind this can change. Especially on a narrow tippy kayak. It does not take long to get comfortable with moderate wind and to recognize the wind has grown to a higher level. With just a little bit of practice, you can easily lower your sail any time you like. You can drop a Falcon Sail in seconds by releasing the forestay cleat. A lot of kayaks are very stable. If you have a stable kayak, you will probably not want outriggers. If you are the kind of person who is attracted to tippy kayaks you will probably not like outriggers so much. They add bulk, weight, complication, rigging time, and drag. Of all our customers, only very few make this investment, and in the end, most all of them, abandon outriggers if they ever used them. They get in the way and slow you down. Efficiency is very important for upwind performance. A little bit of dragging in the water goes a long way in reducing your ability to sail up wind. On the other hand, if you feel like you need them or they would just make you feel more comfortable it is perfectly okay to use outriggers. If you want some easy to set up and use outriggers, Hobie Side Kicks are easy to rig, very effective, reasonably priced, and easy to find. Before you make this investment, you should rig your sail on your kayak and give it a try. Chances are good you will feel comfortable without using outriggers. 19 out of 20 falcon kayak sailors will never use outriggers.
Hi Patrick, great info, thank you.. I have a Design Kayaks Endless. It is 5.2 M long, and only 50 cm wide. What size sail would you recommend for such a kayak ? Obviously ,this is a fairly fast kayak already, so it probably won't need a lot of power to reach max hull speed. I've tried a few different kayaks with sails, and I probably have around a couple hundred hours of sailing time, so Im reasonably experienced.
LookOutLance :) Based on what you say this is a fairly easy choice. No doubt you will be happy with any size of sail, but one size will hit your sweet spot wind range for your kayak more often. Based on what you say, it is easy for me to suggest making the 1.0 square meter sail my top choice for you. You can design a sail for your kayak here. www.falconsails.com/store We also have stock sails ready to ship as well. Your kayak is easy to rig and will sail great. If you order a Falcon Sail with a complete rigging kit, when the box arrives it will include 100% of the hardware you need for an easy and solid rigging job. It will include adapters that are perfect for your Design Kayak Endless. Call or email our shop any time. www.falconsails.com/contact.php Here is a longer winded canned answer to your question to give you some more knowledge and ideas on this subject. What size sail to rig ================================================== The 1.4 is nice to have on a light wind day or on a wider more stable kayak. The 1.1 is a really nice in between size. The 1.0 is for sure the go to size on a bigger wind day, or if your boat is smaller and tippier. You will be happy with any size, but one size will hit the sweet spot more often than the other. Here are a few general rules of thumb. If you have a narrow kayak, and see winds above 10mph regularly, the 1.0 is the way to go. If you have a super stable kayak / one that is over 28 inches wide and only rarely see winds over 15mph, the 1.4 would be the best size If you have a wide kayak and like big wind days over 15mph a 1.0 square meter sail is a great choice as well. The 1.1 is a nice in between size. No matter what kayak you have, all sizes are going to work nicely with any kayak you may own. If you buy any size sail with a complete rigging kit, you can add a sail only of any size you like at any time and have any combination of sail you like at any time you hit the water. All sizes of Falcon Sails are compatible with the Falcon Sail rig. If you buy a Sail only of any size at any time, it will include everything you need to use it with your Falcon Sail rig. Skill level does play a small role in the choice, but in general a smart advanced kayak sailor will be no more likely to go with a big sail than a beginner. Advanced kayakers who enjoy sailing will typically go out in bigger winds and are best served by the 1.0. There is no reason to be overpowered. On a big wind day, a 1.0 square meter Falcon Sail can push any kayak to its maximum hull speed, and for sure as fast as the strongest paddler can paddle a kayak if the distance is more than a 50-yard sprint. In the ideal world you have all 3 sizes of sails. If you buy a 1.0 square meter sail with a complete rigging kit, you can buy a 1.4 square meter sail only any time you like. And of course, if you buy a 1.4 square meter sail with a complete rigging kit, you can buy a 1.0 square meter sail only any time you like as well. It is all the same thing for the 1.1 square meter sail as well. All Falcon Sails hardware is modular and interchangeable. We look at every order to make sure somebody who already has a Falcon Sail will be taken care of / will have all the hardware necessary to use it on a previously purchased rig with another size sail. The 1.0 sail only comes with a boom extension that will make it work with your 1.4 or 1.1 sail rig. The 1.1 sail only comes with a boom extension that will make it work with your 1.0 or 1.4 sail rig. The 1.4 sail only comes with a boom extension that will make it work with your 1.0 or 1.1 sail rig. So, if you ever buy another size of sail / sail only to use with your current rig, you will have everything you need. Changing sail sizes is easy to do. With just a little practice you will be able to change out a Falcon Sail in about 90 seconds or less. If you decide you like going out on really windy days, you may decide to order a 1.0 later. In any case, there is no sense in being overpowered as the 1.0 on a 15mph wind day, will push your kayak as fast as it will go, but still the 1.4 will be fine in pretty big wind and you can always drop it and stow it on your deck in the unlikely event it is not fun or you do not feel like you are in control. Here is a video that shows how to change sail sizes. facebook.com/falconsails/videos/768410241951446/ Here are a few pictures of Falcon Sails on other Sea Kayaks. www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=30659399%40N02&view_all=1&text=sea+kayak
great video and nice sailing! I just received the sail kit for my Tarpon 140 kayak, and I'll be making a video this week to showcase your great product. I'm excited to get it installed and test it out :)
Falcon Sails is glad you appreciate and recognize our expertise. these things make a big difference in kayak sailing. Thank you very much. You can design a sail for your kayak here. www.falconsails.com/store
Hi Patrick. I’d love to do this with a sit on top kayak, but most of them are just too darn heavy for me to manage. Do you have a suggestion for a SOT that is lighter weight than the typical roto molded ones? Thanks!
If you call our shop, we can give you some ideas and guidance. After a short discussion we will have more ideas that may be a better target for you. I could write a book on this, but I really need to talk with you to give great advice. Call the Falcon Sail shop and ask for me. www.falconsails.com/contact.php Sit on top kayaks are usually a bit heavier. If you want a lightweight kayak for a good value that sails great, I would consider one of the Pelican Recreational Kayaks. I prefer the sit inside versions, but they have some sit inside versions. They are available everywhere for a good value. They are easy to rig, sail great, are light weight, and are easy to move. There are other sit inside kayaks that are a bit lighter, easy to rig, and sail great. Here is a newbie kayak sailor enjoying a nice ride in his 12 foot long Wilderness Systems Pungo 120. facebook.com/falconsails/videos/318391910577036/ He had a 1.4 square meter sail on which is a bit much for a day like this. Since he was with an expert kayak sailor who could help him and the water temp was good it was reasonable to keep on sailing. In a ideal world we would have changed sail sizes because even the smaller size sails would push this kayak to maximum hull speed with this much wind. Here is Patrick enjoying a light wind sail on a Pungo 120 / 12 foot long recreational kayak facebook.com/falconsails/videos/279649154695759/ Here is a neat video where a Falcon Sailor is having a great run making up wind progress in his 10-foot-long kayak with his dog enjoying the ride as well. facebook.com/falconsails/posts/pfbid0367McxiDMYQtogWjR9Y9XX6HP5qDtNoGQyEQmczD5tm6VQfdNSojpGR4NiPbHYZ5zl Here is a video of a Falcon Sail customer making nice upwind progress on his first time out with a 1 square meter Falcon Sail on his 12-foot-long kayak. facebook.com/watch/?v=278619176312509 Here is a nice video clip of a customer in a 12-foot long Pugno / Recreational kayak. This was her first week-end of kayak sailing, and you can see her making up wind progress. facebook.com/falconsails/posts/3107863299279033 Here are a few clips of a Falcon Customer, is enjoying a sail on his 10-foot-long kayak. This one he is going across the wind very easily. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wQ_K7IOKTqQ.html Here is another clip of him having a good time. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aY15ZDpkoLM.html Here is a 11-year-old girl out for her first kayak sail in a 12-foot-long recreational kayak. facebook.com/watch/?v=1536424746422904 Here is a young boy going from zero to taking off on a 12-foot-long sit-on-top kayak. facebook.com/falconsails/videos/977848729280400/ Here a husband and wife enjoyed one of their first kayak sails and made easy across the wind progress. These are Ocean Kayak Sit on top kayaks. I am not sure how light they are. facebook.com/watch/?v=300853454609552 Herea are a few inexpensive kayaks that are sit on top kayaks that I found that will be easy to rig, easy to move, and will sail great. www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/quest-crosswater-100-kayak-23queuqstcrsswtr1psk/23queuqstcrsswtr1psk?srsltid=AfmBOorCTMegQ7jcwMcvh_tp5woBj6o-TXZpSu7YcB_ufP5pLwW1tNbu www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/lifetime-tamarack-muskie-100-angler-kayak-with-paddle-package-16lifumsknglrkykppsk/16lifumsknglrkykppsk?recid=ProductDetail_PageElement_product_rr_5_63106_&rrec=true Look at Eddline kayaks and hurricane kayaks. Her is one I really like for rigging overall dimensions and is lighter than most. hurricaneaquasports.com/pages/skimmer-116-first-class This one is not inexpensive and will take some extra work to rig nicely, but it would sail great and is pretty light. www.rei.com/product/220627/eddyline-caribbean-10-sit-on-top-kayak?sku=2206270001&store=&CAWELAID=120217890016037948&CAGPSPN=pla&CAAGID=123834742924&CATCI=pla-1259022764109&cm_mmc=PLA_Google%7C21700000001700551_2206270001%7C92700063629127551%7CTOF%7C71700000083505493&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw28W2BhC7ARIsAPerrcK1_4m21z09ueaFziZsT3ZHsbJjimkDv2AwmIK7t_czOaZUP-trBGIaAt5cEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds www.travelcountry.com/shop/hurricane/osprey-120-kayak.html?RefId=29&RefType=-Affiliate&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw28W2BhC7ARIsAPerrcIRUQLdNTOkDhGbvkYLb6Pm1kSmK1hhv9Cs3FndKtNaXyzGmxAfUfQaAuDxEALw_wcB
I am glad you enjoyed what we did. We figured it would be best to just make comments as we would if you were with us trying to learn. We take friends out and teach them how to sail all the time. We decided it is time we provide these lessons to a wider audience. Subscribe so you can hear future educational & fun videos.
Just got my sail on my Feelfree 125 and sailing on the Susquehanna and Chesapeake. I love it! BTW I was a dock master during college in the 80’s on South Bass Island (Put-in-Bay). I spent the summer living on my Dad’s boat sailing in the evenings. Small World!
That is a small world story. You should consider coming to the South Bass Rendezvous. It is always the 2nd weekend after memorial day. www.southbassrendezvous.com/
@@YTMegiddo OMG. I loved Pat Dailey. My dad loved Pat Dailey. One time I ran into Pat Dailey as he was just hanging in a bar ( the red building near the state park ). He just started talking with me. I about peed my pants. It was like my dad was alive again. I did not know he died. Now I see he died on July 4th this year. Now I am sad. I work too much. At least I love my job. See you on the water. Patrick
Jim I am very glad you like the video. :) Our group will be going to Kelley's Island the week end of Sept 14th. I have 1 camp site for thursday and friday night. I will be boon docking at the boat ramp / acting like a empty van parked at the boat ramp area Saturday night. You are welcome to camp on our site for thursday and friday night. I guess you can find a camper to rent half a site to you. It will be great if you can make it. We have Joe Motz launching from Perrysburg on Sept 9th and paddling to Kelley's Island to meet us there as part of his 3,000 mile kayak sailing adventure. So that will make it interesting. Bob and Louise have a camp site and so does Scott. It will be great if you make it. If you do, and camp on my site we will have, You, Andy, Marlin, Joe, and myself. Let me know. We are planning on being at South Bass Island Thursday Oct 10th thru Sunday October 13th. I have 2 beautiful campsites 89 and 90 that can hold a lot of tents. I am sure there will be plenty of parking space. You are welcome camp on the Falcon Sails sites there as well. Let me know.
We can make a custom rigging kayak sail kit to exactly match your sit on top kayak. Typically sit on top kayaks hulls have nice contour and it makes them sail even better than the kayak in this video which has a rounded flat bottom hull. You can see what options we have and if you like to order a sail here. www.falconsails.com/store No matter what kayak you have our 1.1 square meter sail with a complete rigging kit is a great choice. It is a nice in between size that will fit reasonable sailing conditions great. At this time, we have a full inventory of stock sails, so you can order any size sail you want, and have it shipped to you right away. Having a quick ship option along with a discounted price for stock sails, makes stock sails a nice way to go. You can also custom design a sail on our webstore as well. Having a quick ship option along with a discounted price for stock sails, makes stock sails a nice way to go. At the end of the purchase process, our store will ask you what kind of kayak you have, and we will then put together a custom rigging kit that is perfect for your kayak. When the box arrives at your location, it will include 100% of the parts you need for an easy and solid install on your kayak. All you will need are very basic common tools such as a screwdriver, wrench, tape measure, drill, and drill bits. If you make a mistake and miss enter your kayak info, or we are not 100% sure about what kayak you have, we will contact you. Our extensive parts inventory and experience allows us to make the most complete rigging kit possible for you. We are avid kayak sailors ourselves. We are into it and will provide the best support you will find anywhere. Feel free to call or email our shop any time starting now until years after you order a Falcon Sail. US 1-419-800-0132 Our install instructions are detailed, and you can call us for help any time you like. Here is a video that shows in detail how to install a Falcon Sail on your kayak. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2i8_EEExqNg.html
Impressive Kayak Sailing!! I am a kayaker, but I have never sailed in my life. I recently got a gorgeous Kevlar-made 11 years old Easy Rider Dolphin 15ft w/ rudder and I am contemplating to convert it into a sealing kayak since these Easy Rider kayaks are already made with rig for easy adaptation to a sailing boat. When on open water, is it possible to take down the sail while siting in the kayak if one wishes so? How stable a sailing kayak would be without a catamaran stabilizers? Dan from Seattle
Would a flat hulled kayak (but with a Rudder kit) benefit from the falcon sail you think? I have a 14’ W.S Pamlico I was thinking about adding a rudder and sail too. It’s very sluggish in the water right now as is. Do you think the right sailing rig could turn it into something that could zip through the water even @ 5mph?
Your kayak will sail great. All kayaks sail surprisingly well. Your Pamlico falls into a category we call Tandem Recreational Kayak. They are easy to rig, they layout nicely for both the sail in the up position and the stowed on deck position. The tandem recreational kayaks are stable, and most have some nice hull contour for impressive upwind capabilities. Tandem Recreational kayaks are actually one of the very best kayaks for kayak sailing. The best kayak for kayak sailing is the kayak you own and like. Some are better at sailing, but all kayaks are better with a good sail. In moderate and above winds, 1.4 square meter falcon sail will push harder than 2 paddlers can paddle. If the kayak is worth having without a sail, it is way nicer with a sail. In this video you see 1.0 square meter falcon sails and they are pushing way harder than a kayaker can paddle. If you order a 1.4 square meter Falcon Sail with a complete rigging kit, when the box arrives you will have all the hardware and parts you need for an easy and solid rigging job on your Pamlico. Here is a link to some pictures of kayaks very similar to yours with Falcon Sails on them. www.flickr.com/photos/falconsails/albums/72177720318416005/with/53829349137 Here is a recreational tandem kayak with 1 kid and 1 adult on board making nice progress. Most all Tandem Recreational kayaks are pretty much the same, but in case you would like to know this is a Old Town Kayak. It will basically be identical to your Wilderness Systems Pamlico 14. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-I4zd8kuPOCk.html He has a 1.4 square meter Falcon Sail and is cruising along really nicely. You can order a sail for your kayak here. www.falconsails.com/store
@@FalconSails my Pamlico isn’t a tandem model The solo Pamlico line stopped production around 2005 I believe they had 3 sizes the 100 120 and 140 I have the latter. It’s a big open cockpit so I’m not sure how far back from the bow I’d need to install the mast plate.
@@JasonSinatra-s3e 14 foot long recreational kayaks like yours are great for kayak sailing. Anywhere 24 to 32 inches from the bow tip is perfect for rigging the mast. One of the 14 foot kayaks in the video has the mast at 28 and the other is at 30 inches. I found some pictures and specs for the Pamlico 140. At 14 feet is good since it easy to handle. Like the ones in this video. The Pamlico 140 is stable at 28 inches wide and its hull contour is great for lateral resistance and up wind performance. It has the bonus of being rudder ready. Rudders are not required, but are nice to have for lazy sailing. If you are a Falcon Sail customer we can get you a smart track rudder system at our wholesale price. This kayak is easy to rig. In this video a newbie kayak sailor is doing great in some pretty big wind and a 1.4 square meter sail. The kayak would sail great with even a smaller sail, but we just went with what we had. This is a 12 foot long 29-inch wide Pungo 120. It has the same characteristics as your boat. It sails great just like any other short wide kayak will sail. Yours will just be a little bit faster and have a little bit better lateral resitance. facebook.com/falconsails/videos/318391910577036/
The white sail is 1.1 square meters. The sails in the fun sailing video clips are 1.0 square meters. Falcon Sails also has a 1.4 square meter sail. All sails will work interchangeably on our sail rigs. So if you have 1 size of sail on your rig, you can change to a new size of sail in about 1 minute.
Detailed answer part 1 of 3 on Lateral Resistance Enhancers Lee Boards / Center Boards ================================================ Your question about using a lateral resistance enhancer (lee boards / dagger boards / large skegs / keels) and if they are necessary to sail with a Falcon Sail is a common question, so we have made a canned detailed answer to provide the best answer we can give. The short answer is a stock kayak hull does great and lateral resistance enhancers are not necessary. They will get in the way and create complexities and issues at times. Very well-made lee boards can help with some angles of attack but are not helpful in most situations and will get in the way on every outing. They add bulk, drag, weight, complexity, cost, potential failures etc.. Kayaks sail surprisingly well without any lateral resistance enhancer. Near zero falcon sailors use lee boards or other lateral resistance enhancers. There is a longer more detailed answer below. The owner of Falcon Sails wrote an this in an article. I grew up sailing keel boats, sun fishes, trailer sailors, Hobie cats and anything else I could get my hands on. As a conventional sailboat person, I thought like many people that, only a boat with a lateral resistance enhancer (lee board / center board / dagger board / keel) will sail properly. We have learned there is a lot more to kayak sailing than conventional sail thinking will tell you. Conventional sailboat thinking is very helpful at times but does yield a few misleading assumptions about kayak sailing. As far as needing a lateral resistance enhancer goes, you must consider a few things before making any assumptions. Look at a Hobie 16 and some other purpose-built sail boats. Even as a purpose-built sailboat, the Hobie 16 has no resistance enhancer because its hulls have a lot of natural lateral resistance built right in from the start. They have no lee boards, dagger boards, center boards, or keels. Like the Hobie 16 Catamaran Sailboat (not a Hobie kayak), kayaks have a lot of natural lateral resistance built into their hulls as well and sail surprisingly well without any lateral resistance enhancer. Kayaks are not sail boats, and will not point up wind as well as a complex sailboat, but their hulls are efficient at sailing and can make surprisingly good up wind progress. Think about this. Sailboat hulls are designed to be as slippery as possible going forward. A byproduct of a sailboat hull being designed to be as slippery as possible going forward, is a hull that is slippery going sideways (and slippery in all directions actually) and tends to spin. This is corrected with a large keel or dagger board and a large rudder. Modern Sailboat hulls, make conventional sail thinkers believe you must have a lateral resistance enhancer on a kayak. Kayak hulls are designed to track and go in a straight line. This is achieved by having lateral resistance built in throughout the length of the hull, which is what makes them sail surprisingly well without lateral resistance enhancers. To demonstrate how a kayak has a lot more resistance going sideways than forward, imagine pushing a kayak that has an adult sitting in it in the forward direction. Most kayaks will easily glide 30 feet or more. Now imagine pushing that same kayak with an adult in it, in the sideways direction. Due to its lateral resistance, it will probably go about 1 or 2 feet after you are done pushing it. Or think about towing a kayak with a person in it, from the side vs towing a loaded kayak from the bow. The kayak towed from the side will be much slower due to its lateral resistance. In both examples you are testing and proving, a kayaks lateral resistance is significant. Once a kayaks hull moves through the water, its lateral resistance increases by quite a bit. All this said, with a smart sized sail / one that is not too big, a kayak has plenty of lateral resistance without adding anything to it. Once you build up some speed, a kayaks lateral resistance increases dramatically. Kayaks do not sail as well as a purpose-built sailboat, but you can do no paddle sailing and reach across the wind, and even make some upwind progress. Of course, a purpose-built sailboat will sail better than a kayak will, but kayaks sail amazingly well. If you have an efficient sail, you do not need a lee board, or center board, or dagger board, or any lateral resistance enhancer to have a great kayak sailing experience. Falcon Sails focuses on keeping things simple, efficient, compact, reliable, and lightweight with the best possible performance. All this can be had for less than 3.5 pounds, in a sail that can be dropped in seconds and folded down to the size of an umbrella in just a few more seconds. Lee boards and dagger boards add weight, complication, bulk, expense, drag etc. Some people want to turn their kayaks into a sailboat. That is fine, but you will add weight, complication, bulk, expense, drag, set up time at the put in, tear down time at the take out, more rigging, more stuff to store, and if there is no wind, or too much wind, you are better off with a compact sail rig that gives you 70% or more of the sailing benefits in a package that weighs just over 3 pounds that can be lowered and compactly secured to the deck of your kayak and 100% out of the way in seconds.
Detailed answer part 2 of 3 on Lateral Resistance Enhancers Lee Boards / Center Boards ============================================================================= Everybody has their thing. If you want to have that perfect ideal incredible sailing experience in one situation, you will lose a lot in other situations. There is not a rig that will cover all situations perfectly. If you want simplicity and versatility, you will be happiest with a simplistic high-quality sail and rig for your kayak. As a lifelong sailor, I thought the same thing sailors typically think about lateral resistance appendages. I have sailed and owned a lot of different boats. I used to race and skipper and crew on a lot of different boats and can say I am a decent sailor. My conventional sail thinking made me believe you need a lee board or something on a kayak to sail. Then I tried kayak sailing. The performance of a sail on a kayak amazed me. I was hooked instantly. I was surprised. That was even before there were good quality sail rigs available. Now that I can have a good quality sail rig, and a good airfoil shape, I will not go kayaking without a sail. After kayak sailing for the last 12 years and having paddle sailed thousands of miles, I have never used a lee board or anything like it. None of my friends use lee boards and none of us feel like we are missing anything. If you keep a good sail trimmed properly, oriented to the wind properly, and have at least 1.5 mph of hull speed, you can reach across the wind, and even make upwind progress of up to 20 degrees above reaching. That is without paddling or a lee board or a dagger board on a standard stock kayak hull. Some kayaks will do even better than this. In general terms if you have good conditions, a good sail, and you use decent sail trim, you can easily sail 200 degrees and even up to 220 degrees without paddling and without the bother of any lateral resistance enhancers. If you paddle to keep your speed up and the sail oriented properly to the wind, a good sail, will generate useful propulsion all the way up to within 30 degrees of straight upwind. That is with or without a lateral resistance enhancer. In general, once your actual track is 10 degrees above reaching, you have to start paddling to keep things oriented properly. Initially a few small paddle strokes here and there will add a lot to your possible angles of attack. The more aggressively upwind your angle of attack is, the more you must paddle. But still, you can gain useful propulsion to within 30 degrees of straight upwind. For example, you can paddle with a 2mph effort and go 3.5mph. You can speed up faster, slow down slower, and have a higher top speed. You can have a lot lower paddle stroke resistance as well and have a lot more fun while you are at it. With a little bit of planning, you can paddle upwind a little bit and reach back and forth all day long and not have to paddle much at all. Once your movement is 15 degrees above reaching, you cannot just sit there doing nothing, but you can avoid paddling and reach across the wind all day long, and even make upwind progress without paddling and without lateral resistance appendages or enhancers. With a good sail, kayaks sail very nicely. Just like when sailing a purpose-built sailboat, when kayak sailing to maximize your potential, you will have to think about what you are doing. When conditions are good, you can get useful propulsion to within 30 degrees of straight upwind. Anybody who does a lot of kayak sailing with a good quality rig will agree. If it is very windy, gusty, shifty, there are large waves, you are not thinking, you have too big of a sail, the paddle sailor is inexperienced, ect, the 30-degree number is going to grow. With a good sail and some practice you can have the same results.
@@FalconSailsUncut thanks for the reply, that makes a lot of sense. My other question which I believe you answered was: can you sail without paddling? Meaning does the sail provide enough power (obviously needs some breeze) to move forward without the need to paddle at all? I ask this because many videos I see of the falcon set ups, the people are paddling while their sail is up.
@@jaysjourney4518 you can sail all day long with about zero paddling 200 out of 360 degrees of angle of attack. That is over 70% of what a conventional sail boat will sail. Throw in some paddle strokes and you can have useful sail propulsion on 300 out of 360 degrees of angle of attack. It is very simplistic and a lot of fun.
These kayaks are Jackson Journeys. If your kayak looks anything like this you can put a Falcon Sail on it. You can put a Falcon Sail on any kayak. When you order a Falcon Sail it will include 100% of the hardware you need for an easy and solid rigging job. Though there are some exceptions with inflatables and folding kayaks. Inflatables and folding kayaks some times require some parts to be provided by our customer.
Yes you can rig it on any kayak. But you should let us know what kayak you have so we can tell you more. Go to the Falcon Sails Website / Contact Page and send an email, and we will reply in detail. Thank you very much.
The white kayak is 18 feet long. The wood kayak is 18 feet long. The yellow kayak is 17. In general shorter kayaks are a better choice for kayak sailing. The main boat choice rule is the best kayak for kayak sailing is the kayak you already own and like. They all sail surprisingly well.
What was the wind speed during this sail? Do you offer recommendations for maximum wind speeds for using the various sail sizes you offer? Is it possible to use your paddle as lateral resistance to improve upwind performance?
In general I can only guess on this. I guess the wind was 12 to 14mph. Sail size choice depends on a lot of factors. Mostly experience, boat stability, water temp, gustiness, shiftiness, closeness to shore, ect ect ect. When you have more experience you will know what size will be your top choice. In general even experts guess the size they want for a particular outing. Unless it is really windy. Then you go small, or calm then you go big. When you are on the water it becomes obvious if you like your sail sizes or not. In general you will make the right choice when you launch and then you can land and make a fast change of sail size if not. If you make a bad choice you can always drop your sail, or let the sheet line out to depower. If you want more sail area, some times you are stuck with the smaller size sail. Remember. You can always land and change out your sail size. Do not over think it. If we only had 1 size of sail to choose from or our sails were not interchangeable like they are you would just go sailing and either live with a smaller sail than you would like, or depower by sheeting out or drop your sail if it were too big. Here are some rough off the top of my head guesstimates for a averagely experienced kayak sailor on a moderately stable kayak. 1.0 sail. 10mph to 20mph. 1.1 sail. 8mph to 18mph. 1.4 sail 5mph to 15mph. Anyway the best thig to do is just sail and learn. Choices and accepting guesses before you launch become natural with experience. If in doubt go with a smaller sail. It is an easy choice. You can always land and or live with a smaller than desired sail once under way.
Here is another reply with a canned answer about wind speed factors. When people ask about wind speed, it can lead to a very long answer. The short answer is it is a judgement call for sure. Another part of the short answer is if you can handle the wind, your properly installed Falcon Sail can easily handle the wind. So, you can be confident your falcon sail rig is stronger than necessary. In general, when we are talking about first time kayak sailors, it is best to stay close to shore and experiment with winds under 10mph to learn the basics and carefully discover what makes sense for you. In general, you must learn about what wind speeds are reasonable. There are many things to consider. It depends on a lot of factors such as. How in control you are. How tippy is your kayak. How far from shore you are. Are there large breaking waves Is it gusty or shifty. What is the wind predicted to do. Are you good at dropping the sail. It does not take long to get good at doing this. Are you 100% confident in your ability to get back in the kayak. How cold is the water. Does your kayak have proper flotation. Are you good swimmer. Do you have competent in control paddlers with you to assist with a rescue Are you dressed for a swim. What is your angle of attack. In big winds going up wind is much harder to do than going down wind. Running down wind can make it feel less windy. What size of sail do you have on. In the end I would just say, make sure you stay in control. It requires some judgment. If you are in safe conditions and you have a smaller size sail with a stable kayak, 15mph is probably okay but will be the limit for most all new kayak sailors. If you have a bigger sail and a not stable kayak, with any factors working against you, then you most people with common sense would reduce that number to about 10mph. The best thing to do is go out in less wind and start to learn for yourself. You just cannot put a number on it. It does not take long for a reasonable person to get comfortable with deciding what is reasonable and what is not reasonable.
@@FalconSails Thanks for the prompt, detailed reply. For context, I have a 12', beamy (30") strip ply sit in kayak that I've been sailing with a Pacific Action 1.0 m2 sail rig for a few years now. I'm generally happy with this rig's downwind performance but I would love your sail's upwind capability. I'm wondering if my boat could handle a larger sail, or if I should stick with your 1.0 m2. Is your sail shape inherently more efficient on all points of sail?
@@allenwhitehead7246 A 12 foot long x 30 inch wide kayak can handle a 1.4 square meter Falcon Sail no problem. The size of your kayak is perfect. The best kayak for kayak sailing is the one you own and like, but a kayak 12 feet x 30 inches is ideal. It is long enough to give you room to paddle and short enough to be easy to handle. It will go up wind better than most kayaks. So yes a 1.4 square meter falcon sail is great for your kayak, but if you have great wind, the 1.0 will push your boat to its maximum hull speed. Extra power will only work against you once you hit max hull speed. You can also buy another sail only in a different size and use it on your falcon sail rig. You can buy other size sails any time you like and use it with your rig. If you have another size of sail, you can change it out in about 1 minute. So no need to be too concerned about sail sizes. Each size of sail has its sweet spot wind range. The 1.1 square meter falcon sail will hit more wind speeds than the other sizes. It is our most popular size. The Falcon Sail efficiency will be a great benefit on all angles of attack. Falcons will sail at angles the Pacific Action will not and will outsail the Pacific Action on all angles of attack. The Falcon sail is easier to handle as well. it provides steady power vs pulsating power. And the Falcon has the sail size change ability which is a great feature not available with any other kayak sail maker. If you contact us via email or call us we can give you better information with hyperlinks and pictures. www.falconsails.com/contact.php No matter what kayak you have our 1.1 square meter sail with a complete rigging kit is a great choice. It is a nice in between size that will fit reasonable sailing conditions great. You can see the options we have and order a sail here. www.falconsails.com/store At this moment we have a few stock sails which can be a nice thing to have if you want to get started right away. So, you can order any size sail you want, and have it shipped to you right away. You can also custom design a sail there as well. Having a quick ship option along with a discounted price for stock sails, makes stock sails a nice way to go. At the end of the purchase process, it will ask you what kind of kayak you will rig it on. If you do not let us know, we will be contacting you to make sure we know. We will make a custom rigging kit that is perfect for your kayak. It will include 100% of the parts you need to do a fast and solid rigging job on your kayak. All you will need are a few basic tools. We will be here for you from the beginning and through years of sailing. All we do is design, manufacture, and support the best kayak sails available anywhere. We treat everybody like a kayak sailing friend. We are avid kayak sailors ourselves. We are into it and will provide the best support you will find anywhere. Feel free to call or shop or me any time. Our install instructions are detailed and you can call us for help any time you like. Here is a video that shows in detail how to install a Falcon Sail on your kayak. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2i8_EEExqNg.html
With a good quality sail rig and a little bit of experience you can do it too. We can help you rig a great sail on any kayak you own. See. www.falconsails.com/store
We do not use a dagger board or a rudder. If a kayak is okay without a rudder without a sail, it is still okay without a rudder with a sail. Though a rudder can be nice for lazy kayak sailing. The general rule of thumb is a kayak less than 13 feet long is fine without a rudder. Also if your kayak has an adjustable skeg it will work just as good as a rudder. A rudder is made to trim your kayak not turn it. So if your kayak tends to turn up wind, you give a little rudder force down wind. And vice versa. On a short kayak you can change your boats trim / course tendency very easily by leaning forward or back a little to change your boats center of lateral resistance. Or you can move just a little weight fore and aft. A water bottle should do it. You can change your trim by pulling the sail in tight or loose, or leaning up wind or down wind. Steering is not a issue. If your paddle says go left and the rudder says go right, you will turn left. Some times rudders mask out of balance situations. If I do have a rudder on my kayak, I start my day sailing with the ruder up to see how well it is balanced. If your kayak is okay in the wind without a rudder it is fine without a rudder with a sail. Some kayaks have adjustable skegs which also fixes any trim issues as well. We never use lee boards or center boards or any other lateral resistance enhancer. Kayaks do surprisingly well. Our goal is to have a very light weight compact sail rig ( 3 pounds that folds to the size of an umbrella ) that gives you 75% of the sail only angles of attack a more complex bulky rig will do. You can sail with no paddling 200 out of 360 degrees. If you throw in some paddle strokes you can have useful propulsion on 300 out of 360 degrees. Lee boards will help on some angles of attack, but they are bulky, heavy, complicated, get in the way, slow you down on many angles of attack, slow you down at the launch site and take out and can be costly. If you do not have a super well made lee board or one that is hydrodynamically smart they provide about zero value / are a loss in the simplicity approach. For more info read my next replies with canned text on rudders and lee boards.
Read my general answer to your question maybe first before these canned answer below. #Rudders ======================================================= The general rule of thumb is, if a kayak is fine without a rudder when just paddling, it will be fine without a rudder when you are kayak sailing. On a kayak 13 feet or shorter, rudders are not necessary. If a kayak has an adjustable skeg, a rudder is not necessary. It is quite rare to see a 12-foot kayak or shorter rigged with a rudder. I (the owner of Falcon Sails) have a 12-foot kayak and have never considered putting a rudder on it. When my paddle says go right, my boat will turn right. It will turn right even if a rudder on my kayak would say turn left. Rudders are almost never necessary until you get into kayaks over 14 feet long. You can see in the pictures included with this email, that the short kayaks do not have rudders on them, and even some of the longer kayaks do not as well. If you want to do some lazy kayak sailing and not use a paddle for long stretches and do not want to lean or adjust the sail to steer, you can install a rudder and you may like it. If you have a short kayak, you should avoid having a rudder early on, as number 1 you are likely not to care if you have one, and more importantly, a rudder will likely be a crutch and make it easy to use bad habits. You should naturally balance out your kayak (it is an obvious thing to do (When you lean forward you will notice the kayak turning upwind, and when you lean back you will see the kayak turn down wind )) so it will tend to go in a straight line and not use a rudder to force an out of balance kayak to go in a straight line. A rudder used to force an out of balance kayak to be in balance, is just more drag in the water and will reduce your efficiency and your ability to point up wind. The general rule of thumb is, if your kayak is okay without a rudder without a sail, it will be okay without a rudder with a sail. Having a sail will slightly increase the desirability for having a rudder. Big winds and high speeds also make having a rudder more desirable. Having a rudder can make it easier to get through the learning curve. In general, kayaks under 13 feet are always fine without a rudder. Just like a kayak without a sail, when you get into kayaks over 14 feet long rudders or adjustable skegs are nice to have. The longer the kayak is the more likely you will enjoy having a rudder. Even better than using a rudder, a kayaks tendency to turn up wind or downwind can be addressed with sail trim, leaning up wind and down wind, leaning forward and aft, changing the distribution of your load, and adjusting your speed. Once you start doing these things, many times you would not use a rudder as a rudder is not the best way to put a kayak in balance to stay on course. The shorter the kayak, and the more experience you have the easier it is to live without a rudder. Finally, when kayaking or kayak sailing, if your paddle says turn left and your rudder says something else, your paddle will win. Rudders and skegs are not there for turning so much as they are there to trim your kayaks tendency to a neutral tendency to turn up wind or down wind. A nicely trimmed kayak is great to have. A rudder is one of the easiest tools to use for trimming your kayak. But a rudder is a is a crutch many times and prevents people from learning proper techniques for staying in balance. And of course, using a rudder to trim your kayak also adds drag and slows you down so they are best reserved for minor fluctuations in balance vs a tool to power your way through an unbalanced situation. The more drag you have, the harder it is to efficiently sail up wind. In the end, if a Falcon Sail customer would like to have a rudder, then can have us send them a complete smart track (it is the best rudder kit you will find) rudder kit for their kayak at our cost which usually ends up being $225 including shipping.
Read my general answer to your question maybe first before these canned answer below. Lateral Resistance Enhancers Lee Boards / Center Boards Part 1 of 2 ================================================ Your question about using a lateral resistance enhancer (lee board / dagger boards / large skegs) and if they are necessary to sail with a Falcon Sail is a common question, so we have made a canned answer to help people. The short answer is a stock kayak hull does great and lateral resistance enhancers are not necessary. They will get in the way and create complexities and issues at times. Very well-made lee boards can help with some angles of attack but are not helpful in most situations and will get in the way on every outing. They add bulk, drag, weight, complexity, cost, potential failures etc.. Kayaks sail amazingly well without any lateral resistance enhancer. Near zero falcon sailors use lee boards or other lateral resistance enhancers. There is a longer more detailed answer below. The owner of Falcon Sails wrote an this in a article. I grew up sailing keel boats, sun fishes, trailer sailors, Hobie cats and anything else I could get my hands on. As a conventional sailboat person, I use to think only a boat with a lateral resistance enhancer (lee board / center board / dagger board / keel) will sail properly. We have learned there is a lot more to kayak sailing, than conventional sail thinking will tell you. Conventional sailboat thinking is very helpful at times but does yield a few misleading assumptions about kayak sailing. As far as needing a lateral resistance enhancer goes, you must consider a few things before making any assumptions. Look at a Hobie 16 and some other purpose-built sail boats. Even as a purpose-built sailboat, the Hobie 16 has no resistance enhancer because its hulls have a lot of natural lateral resistance built right in from the start. They have no lee boards, dagger boards, center boards, or keels. Like the Hobie 16 Catamaran Sailboat (not a Hobie kayak), kayaks have a lot of natural lateral resistance built into their hulls also and sail surprisingly well without any lateral resistance enhancer. Kayaks are not sail boats, will not point as well as a complex sailboat, but their hulls are efficient at sailing and can make surprisingly good up wind progress. Think about this. Sailboat hulls are designed to be as slippery as possible going forward. A byproduct of a sailboat hull being designed to be as slippery as possible going forward, is a hull that is slippery going sideways (and slippery in all directions actually) and also tends to spin. Modern Sailboat hulls, make conventional sail thinkers believe you must have a lateral resistance enhancer on a kayak. Kayak hulls are designed to track and go in a straight line. This is achieved by having lateral resistance built in throughout the length of the hull, which is what makes them sail surprisingly well without lateral resistance enhancers. To demonstrate how a kayak has a lot more resistance going sideways than forward, imagine pushing a kayak that has an adult sitting in it in the forward direction. Most kayaks will easily glide 30 feet or more. Now imagine pushing that same kayak with an adult in it, in the sideways direction. Due to its lateral resistance, it will probably go about 1 or 2 feet after you are done pushing it. Or think about towing a kayak with a person in it, from the side vs towing a loaded kayak from the bow. The kayak towed from the side will be much slower due to its lateral resistance. In both examples you are testing and seeing, a kayaks lateral resistance is significant. Once a kayaks hull moves through the water, its lateral resistance increases by quite a bit. All this said, with a smart sized sail / one that is not too big, a kayak has plenty of lateral resistance without adding anything to it. Once you build up some speed, a kayaks lateral resistance increases dramatically. Kayaks do not sail as well as a purpose-built sailboat, but you can do no paddle sailing and reach across the wind, and even make some upwind progress. Of course, a purpose-built sailboat will sail better than a kayak will, but kayaks sail amazingly well. If you have an efficient sail, you do not need a lee board, or center board, or dagger board, or any lateral resistance enhancer to have a great kayak sailing experience. Falcon Sails focuses on keeping things simple, efficient, compact, reliable, and lightweight with the best possible performance. All this can be had for less than 3.5 pounds, in a sail that can be dropped in seconds and folded down to the size of an umbrella in just a few more seconds. Lee boards and dagger boards add weight, complication, bulk, expense, drag etc. Some people want to turn their kayaks into a sailboat. That is fine, but you will add weight, complication, bulk, expense, drag, set up time at the put in, tear down time at the take out, more rigging, more stuff to store, and if there is no wind, or too much wind, you are better off with a compact sail rig that gives you 70% or more of the sailing benefits in a package that weighs just over 3 pounds that can be lowered and compactly secured to the deck of your kayak and 100% out of the way in seconds. Everybody has their thing. If you want to have that perfect ideal incredible sailing experience in one situation, you will lose a lot in other situations. There is not a rig that will cover all situations perfectly. If you want simplicity and versatility, you will be happiest with a simplistic high-quality sail and rig for your kayak. As a lifelong sailor, I thought the same thing sailors typically think about lateral resistance appendages. I have sailed and owned a lot of different boats. I used to race and skipper and crew on a lot of different boats, and can say I am a decent sailor. My conventional sail thinking made me believe you need a lee board or something on a kayak to sail. Then I tried kayak sailing. The performance of a sail on a kayak amazed me. I was hooked instantly. I was surprised. That was even before there were good quality sail rigs available. Now that I can have a good quality sail rig, and a good airfoil shape, I will not go kayaking without a sail. After kayak sailing for the last 12 years and having paddle sailed thousands of miles, I have never used a lee board or anything like it. None of my friends use lee boards and none of us feel like we are missing anything. If you keep a good sail trimmed properly, oriented to the wind properly, and have at least 1.5 mph of hull speed, you can reach across the wind, and even make upwind progress of about 20 degrees above reaching. That is without paddling or a lee board or a dagger board on a standard stock kayak hull. Some kayaks will do even better than this. In general terms if you have good conditions, a good sail, and you use decent sail trim, you can easily sail 200 degrees and even up to 220 degrees without paddling and without the bother of any lateral resistance enhancers. If you paddle to keep your speed up and the sail oriented properly to the wind, a good sail, will generate useful propulsion all the way up to within 30 degrees of straight upwind. That is with or without a lateral resistance enhancer. In general, once your actual track is 10 degrees above reaching, you have to start paddling to keep things oriented properly. Initially a few small paddle strokes here and there will add a lot to your possible angles of attack. The more aggressively upwind your angle of attack is, the more you have to paddle. But still, you can gain useful propulsion to with 30 degrees of straight upwind. For example, you can paddle with a 2mph effort and go 3.5mph. You can speed up faster, slow down slower, and have a higher top speed. You can have a lot lower paddle stroke resistance as well and have a lot more fun while you are at it. With a little bit of planning, you can paddle upwind a little bit and reach back and forth all day long and not have to paddle much at all. Once your movement is 15 degrees above reaching, you cannot just sit there doing nothing, but you can avoid paddling and reach across the wind all day long, and even make upwind progress without paddling and without lateral resistance appendage or enhancers. With a good sail, kayaks sail very nicely. Just like when sailing a purpose-built sailboat, when kayak sailing to maximize your potential, you will have to think about what you are doing. When conditions are good, you can get useful propulsion to within 30 degrees of straight upwind. Anybody who does a lot of kayak sailing with a good quality rig will agree. If it is really windy, gusty, shifty, there are large waves, you are not thinking, you have too big of a sail, the paddle sailor is inexperienced, ect, the 30-degree number is going to grow. With a good sail and some practice you can have the same results.
Read my general answer to your question maybe first before these canned answer below. Lateral Resistance Enhancers Lee Boards / Center Boards - Part 2 of 2 ================================================ I wrote a bit more about this here. www.falconsails.com/KayakSailingFAQ.php#centerboard If you contact me at Falcon Sails, I can send to you a rough draft set of instructions for kayak sailing upwind. www.falconsails.com/contact.php This video shows a clip of a upwind leg I was enjoying a few seasons ago. It is a lot of fun. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xjzld6MZhCI.html I was in a 14-foot-long Jackson Journey kayak and making some upwind progress without paddling. I could have made more upwind progress if I paddled, but I can sail with no paddle 210 out of 360 degrees. This kayak has a rounded hull so most kayaks will do a little better yet. This video shows me sailing and tacking upwind with no lee board or dagger board and almost zero paddling. Here are 2 videos of me enjoying my kayak and sailing up wind with very little paddling. facebook.com/falconsails/videos/1594936704274061 & facebook.com/falconsails/posts/4106133799451973 Both includes some really neat gps telemetry that makes it easy to see my actual movement. It shows me sailing 210 out of 360 possible degrees. This kayak has a rounded hull which makes it a average performer. If your kayak has a contoured hull, it will sail better / about 10 more degrees on both the port and starboard side. If I started paddling and kept the sail oriented to the wind properly and kept some motion to help my stock hull generate more lateral resistance, I could have had useful propulsion to within 30 degrees of straight upwind. This is very similar to motor sailing a sailboat. The motor alone can push the sailboat, but using the sail it will speed up faster, have a higher top end speed, will slow down slower, and require less effort to get to your destination. Here is another video of some friends and I enjoying a nice 18-mile paddle sail where we sail about 70% of the day. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RkbSSlYEYl0.html If you plan your day well, use good techniques, take advantage of reaching, and not dive downwind you can sail all day long without lee boards. Here are some pictures of a typical kayak sailing day, that include a track log of what we sailed and what we did not sail. I had several beginner kayak sailors with me, so I avoided some of the more difficult tacks and we still sailed about 75% of our miles. www.flickr.com/.../falco.../albums/72157712563766083 Here is a link to video and paddle sail report showing how much fun my friends and I had on a 5-day trip kayak sailing around Cedar Key on the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida. Look at the text. With a little bit of planning and smart sailing, we were able to sail 90% of all our lines. facebook.com/falconsails/videos/2408620615978528/ Here is a link that shows all the lines we recorded on our GPS. www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1OgAfpky2M25Ui6poZo6ANwL5a-_zGwc&ll=29.13438357058386%2C-83.0575005&z=14&fbclid=IwAR0RyoxfXOwNB-b2jKG-mATcsc5BKCNszuc2v9KiYjhdXLIxu2Ymre2RUqQ You can zoom in and see all the details. We sailed 90% of these lines. It was amazing. If you want to sail paddle sail in good conditions, it is easy to sail with zero paddling more than half your chosen lines even if you do not plan anything and just randomly pick lines. If you get smart and choose good lines, you can easily sail with zero paddling 80% of your lines and raise that to 100% of your lines. If you paddle while doing some of your sailing, you can use your sail all day long.
I wrote a bunch of reply info to your question. Here is another / later install video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2i8_EEExqNg.html You can see what options we have and order a sail here. www.falconsails.com/store Now we have a full inventory of stock sails which is not always the case. So, you can order any size sail you want, and have it shipped to you right away. You can also custom design a sail there as well. Having a quick ship option along with a discounted price for stock sails, makes stock sails a nice way to go. At the end of the purchase process, our store will ask you what kind of kayak you have, and we will then put together a rigging kit that is perfect for your kayak. 100% of the parts you need will come with the kit. All you will need are very basic common tools such as a screwdriver, wrench, tape measure, drill, and drill bits. If you make a mistake and miss enter your kayak info, or we are not 100% sure about what kayak you have, we will contact you. We will look at our boat database and come up with a parts list and rigging plan that is perfect for your kayak. Our extensive parts inventory and experience allows us to make the most complete rigging kit possible for you.
The sail really makes the kayak rip through those waves. How long can such a session last before you feel you have had enough or need a sip of hot coffee before you carry on?
I see you're selling this for $650. That is three times more expensive than my boat (which has been good to row 3,000 km, most of which, in one go). While I can understand the fun factor, I do not understand why you would attach the sail to a kayak, which you get exactly because you want to exercise.
It is a lot like leaning into a turn when riding a bike. Worse yet is having a outrigger dragging in the water. A little bit of leaning goes a long ways. If you want to sail across the wind, on a windy day, you need to lean into the wind. It is just part of sailing. On this day it was pretty darn windy / pushing is close to max hull speed so of course you need to lean into the wind. One other point I will make is the guy in the video / me, had one of his bigger sail on. If it were a 1.0 instead of the taller and bigger 1.115 there would have been less leaning. And of course, I was going up wind and down wind / taking longer lines so I had to keep tight sail trim to keep up with those going in a straight line. If I were uncomfortable I would let the sheet line out and have less healing force. But in this case I preferred the speed so I could do a lot of turning to have more fun.
If you want to see some real leaning, here is a clip from later in the day. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tDpmn9ZcwCE.htmlsi=AN8QMkG-4B_kTuRJ Some people decided to go down wind, but 2 of us were trying to go aggressively as possible up wind, we leaned a lot. You can just take the easy route or limit your sailing to light wind days if you like. Or you can go for it as well if you like.
@@1234superduper, all makes sense; thank you for the taking the time to write such a comprehensive answer! Thank you, too, for the link; I am taking a look at the video right now!
Anybody that goes on a kayak with our without a sail should be prepared to capsize. It is easy to avoid capsizing with a sail. If you do capsize, with a Falcon Sail the process to recover is identical to recovering without a sail. The only difference is you should take a second or 2 to release the forestay cleat so the sail will collapse. You can take a few more seconds to secure the sail to your deck. This is not necessary. After that do a paddle float rescue, assisted rescue, or climb in without a paddle float. In any case, all kayakers should be prepared for a capsize if they have a sail or not. Personally I sail a lot and have not capsized for many years even on my very tippy kayaks. I push my limits as part of my job of testing our sails. It is fun also btw. My first rescue technique is a re enter and roll. I will put some links to this process below. This is basically an expert method. Though if you can roll without a sail, you can do it with a sail as you will see in the videos. My next self rescue technique would be a paddle float rescue. There are tons of videos on this. My next rescue technique is to get help from a friend. In the end you should always practice rescues and self rescues. It is part of opening doors to do more exciting stuff. Here is some info on re enter and rolls. =============================== If you can roll without a sail, you can roll with a sail. All you have to do that is any different, is release the forestay line (which takes around 1 second or less), and rolling is normal. And of course, more important than rolling is using simple common sense to stay within your comfort zone. It is easy to do. Here are some videos of me doing some roll practice. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-u6vdygUCVco.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-a8ANYekiqws.html facebook.com/falconsails/posts/2758151907583509
@FalconSails appreciate your response. Comfort zone seems to be my issue, don't really have such for yaks, been in water once or twice on yak, had done canoes over 20 years. Had osagian 17 for 10 or so years, too buoyant bow when solo, made going against even minimal current too much work to enjoy. Was thinking yak but hesitant for a bunch of reasons. Gonna keep eye out for yaks and 14-16ft aluminum canoes for summertime fun. I'll definitely reach out via your site, letting ya know what I pick up and order sail if ya say my pick can be rigged.
@@U.S.SlaveOfficial you should consider enjoying a stable recreational kayak. The short wide kayaks are reassuring and easy to handle. They sail great too.
Yes you can easily reshape the log flat with a heat gun. Some hair dryers will heat the material enough to reshape the plastic as well. There is always a way to make small changes to a kayaks deck. Heat guns are great tools.
Great explanation - really helpful. I like this rig. But the sail protrudes when stowed, and so I think it would interfere with a clean easy paddle stroke?
On this particular kayak it does protrude a little bit, but it is not much of an issue. A very slight modification in your paddle stroke will 100% take care of this very small problem. The biggest compromise by far is not having a good quality sail when a great one is available. Here are some pictures of a Falcon Sail in the down position. You can see in this collection of pictures it is even a smaller issue on most kayaks. www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=30659399%40N02&sort=date-taken-desc&text=down&view_all=1
We sailed back. It was a little easier to sail there. You can sail across the wind and make 15 degrees up wind progress on both tacks. So you can sail 210 out of 360 degrees with about zero paddle strokes. If you throw in a few paddle strokes the 210 grows to quite a bit more. If you throw in a lot more paddle strokes you can have useful sail propulsion on 300 out of 360 degrees if the wind is not really big. If you watch the weather and plan for wind shifts you can have a day where you a lot more than 210 degrees of sailing options. On this day we had a very easy sail there, then the wind increased and we had slightly bad wind shift and it became a bit more difficult. Our group split up. If you look at the video linked to here you can see Patrick and Andy sailing back in some bigger winds. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tDpmn9ZcwCE.htmlsi=067swb_MSEudECGL If you look closely you can tell we mirror imaged this video to make the mirror image graphics showing through the sail appear to be normal. So it looks like we were on a port tack on the way there and a port tack on the way back. But we were on a port tack on the way there, and a starboard tack on the way back. On the way back the video is a mirror image of reality. :)
Yes you can. For those who would like a more complete explanation, I included more text below. Feel free to call our shop and discuss your kayak and your situation to learn more. www.falconsails.com/contact.php Here is a more detailed answer. ======================================================== With zero paddling, you can make up wind progress above reaching across the wind of about 10 to 20 degrees on each tack or about 20 to 40 degrees of sailing above reaching. That means you can straight up sail 200 (180+20) to 220 (180+40) degrees out of 360 degrees without paddling. To keep things simple let’s say you can sail 200 out of 360 degrees without paddling. That means you can make up wind progress and sail across your lake back and forth and return quite a bit up wind of where you started. If you throw in a few paddle strokes, you can add a lot more degrees of upwind progress. If you have your sail up, and you are paddling a little bit to keep the sail properly oriented to the wind and have the bow pointed in the right direction with a little bit of hull speed, you will generate lateral resistance and useful sail propulsion. The more point your bow aggressively up wind, the more the laws of diminishing returns set in. In the end you can have useful sail propulsion as you paddle sail up to within 30 degrees of straight up wind. That means you can have useful sail propulsion in 300 out of 360 degrees. Just like with a dedicated sailboat, the benefits of sailing diminish as you point more aggressively up wind. Conditions must be good, and you must concentrate but you can gain useful propulsion on 300 out of 360 angles of attack. You will have to paddle, but you can have useful propulsion on 300 out of 360 degrees. If you do not want to paddle / want to be 100% sail propulsion you can sail 200 out of 360 degrees. This video shows an up-wind leg I was enjoying on Lake Erie. As you can see it is a lot of fun. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xjzld6MZhCI.html I was making nice up wind progress, in my 14-foot-long Jackson Journey kayak. This kayak has a rounded hull bottom that will be beaten by most other kayaks hulls. So even the not so good kayaks sail pretty darn well. This video shows me making up wind with no lee board or dagger board and almost zero paddling. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Kgjz69s6zUA.html This is a completely generic Kayak with a standard Falcon Sail on a moderate wind day. It includes some gps telemetry that makes it easy to see my actual movement. It shows me sailing more than 210 out of 360 possible degrees. Like I have said before the Jackson Journey I was paddling at the time is not the very best kayak for kayak sailing, but still performs great like most all kayaks do. I choose my kayaks based on what kayak I like with or without a sail. They all sail surprisingly well. If I started paddling and kept the sail properly oriented to the wind and kept some motion to help the hull generate more lateral resistance, I could have had useful propulsion to within 30 degrees of straight up wind or 300 out of 360 angles of attack. You can make good progress by paddling, but using the sail you can speed up faster, have a higher top end speed, will slow down slower, and require less effort to get to your destination. Here is a nice October run where we were heading to Green Island at the West End of Lake Erie. If you look at the waves you can see we were making nice upwind progress. facebook.com/falconsails/posts/pfbid032zRhqeEixUGhmk7ECvA3nzb8KXXbXNAPR1eFh5VTqJG9qy7dhmu2StCRDUKnBoq2l This video shows us easily reaching across the wind and making some up wind progress in big winds and choppy seas. It was a super fun paddle sail. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-k-oO1D7qctA.html
It looks like that boat has no rudder. Do you steer with your paddle while sailing? Are there different sizes for different kayak designs/hull areas? I was thinking I’d need a rudder and Lee board but maybe not.
Hello Aaron If your kayak is okay without a rudder without a sail, adding a sail does not make a rudder necessary. Steering is much the same as steering when just paddling. An occasional paddle stroke can put you back on course. Or you can change your balance of your kayak to give it an up wind or down wind tendency, by leaning fore and aft and also leaning a little bit up wind or down wind. You can also adjust your kayaks upwind or down wind tendencies by moving some weight around. If your kayak is out of balance and tends to turn up wind or down wind, using a rudder to force it on tack is a bad ideal. You want your boat to have a tendency to stay on course by adjusting trim of your sail and weight and leaning. I will include some standard canned text on rudders below. Rudders ======================================================= The general rule of thumb is, if a kayak is fine without a rudder when just paddling, it will be fine without a rudder when you are kayak sailing. On a kayak 13 feet or shorter, rudders are not necessary. If a kayak has an adjustable skeg, a rudder is not necessary. It is quite rare to see a 12-foot kayak or shorter rigged with a rudder. I (the owner of Falcon Sails) have a 12-foot kayak and have never considered putting a rudder on it. When my paddle says go right, my boat will turn right. It will turn right even if a rudder on my kayak would say turn left. Rudders are almost never necessary until you get into kayaks over 14 feet long. You can see in the pictures included with this email, that the short kayaks do not have rudders on them, and even some of the longer kayaks do not as well. If you want to do some lazy kayak sailing and not use a paddle for long stretches and do not want to lean or adjust the sail to steer, you can install a rudder and you may like it. If you have a short kayak, you should avoid having a rudder early on, as number 1 you are likely not to care if you have one, and more importantly, a rudder will likely be a crutch and make it easy to use bad habits. You should naturally balance out your kayak (it is an obvious thing to do (When you lean forward you will notice the kayak turning upwind, and when you lean back you will see the kayak turn down wind )) so it will tend to go in a straight line and not use a rudder to force an out of balance kayak to go in a straight line. A rudder used to force an out of balance kayak to be in balance, is just more drag in the water and will reduce your efficiency and your ability to point up wind. The general rule of thumb is, if your kayak is okay without a rudder without a sail, it will be okay without a rudder with a sail. Having a sail will slightly increase the desirability for having a rudder. Big winds and high speeds also make having a rudder more desirable. Having a rudder can make it easier to get through the learning curve. In general, kayaks under 13 feet are always fine without a rudder. Just like a kayak without a sail, when you get into kayaks over 14 feet long rudders or adjustable skegs are nice to have. The longer the kayak is the more likely you will enjoy having a rudder. Even better than using a rudder, a kayaks tendency to turn up wind or downwind can be addressed with sail trim, leaning up wind and down wind, leaning forward and aft, changing the distribution of your load, and adjusting your speed. Once you start doing these things, many times you would not use a rudder as a rudder is not the best way to put a kayak in balance to stay on course. The shorter the kayak, and the more experience you have the easier it is to live without a rudder. Finally, when kayaking or kayak sailing, if your paddle says turn left and your rudder says something else, your paddle will win. Rudders and skegs are not there for turning so much as they are there to trim your kayaks tendency to a neutral tendency to turn up wind or down wind. A nicely trimmed kayak is great to have. A rudder is one of the easiest tools to use for trimming your kayak. But a rudder is a is a crutch many times and prevents people from learning proper techniques for staying in balance. And of course, using a rudder to trim your kayak also adds drag and slows you down so they are best reserved for minor fluctuations in balance vs a tool to power your way through an unbalanced situation. The more drag you have, the harder it is to efficiently sail up wind. In the end, if a Falcon Sail customer would like to have a rudder, then can have us send them a complete smart track (it is the best rudder kit you will find) rudder kit for their kayak at our cost which usually ends up being less than $225 including shipping.
Hello Again Aaron You do not need a Lee board or any other lateral resistance enhancer. A kayak is not a sail boat, but can sail surprisingly well due to their design to track hulls. Kayaks will go foreword much faster than sideways / even more so that an naked sail boat hull will. I included some canned text about this with a more detailed explanation below. It has some good information to check out. Lateral Resistance Enhancers Lee Boards / Center Boards ================================================ Your question about using a lateral resistance enhancer (lee board / dagger boards / large skegs) and if they are necessary to sail with a Falcon Sail is a common question, so we have made a canned answer to help people. The short answer is a stock kayak hull does great and lateral resistance enhancers are not necessary. They will get in the way and create complexities and issues at times. Very well-made lee boards can help with some angles of attack but are not helpful in most situations and will get in the way on every outing. They add bulk, drag, weight, complexity, cost, potential failures ect ect. Kayaks sail amazingly well without any lateral resistance enhancer. Near zero falcon sailors use lee boards or other lateral resistance enhancers. There is a longer more detailed answer below. The owner of Falcon Sails wrote an this in a article. I grew up sailing keel boats, sun fishes, trailer sailors, Hobie cats and anything else I could get my hands on. As a conventional sailboat person, I use to think only a boat with a lateral resistance enhancer (lee board / center board / dagger board / keel) will sail properly. We have learned there is a lot more to kayak sailing, than conventional sail thinking will tell you. Conventional sailboat thinking is very helpful at times but does yield a few misleading assumptions about kayak sailing. As far as needing a lateral resistance enhancer goes, you must consider a few things before making any assumptions. Look at a Hobie 16 and some other purpose-built sail boats. Even as a purpose-built sailboat, the Hobie 16 has no resistance enhancer because its hulls have a lot of natural lateral resistance built right in from the start. They have no lee boards, dagger boards, center boards, or keels. Like the Hobie 16 Catamaran Sailboat (not a Hobie kayak), kayaks have a lot of natural lateral resistance built into their hulls also and sail surprisingly well without any lateral resistance enhancer. Kayaks are not sail boats, will not point as well as a complex sailboat, but their hulls are efficient at sailing and can make surprisingly good up wind progress. Think about this. Sailboat hulls are designed to be as slippery as possible going forward. A byproduct of a sailboat hull being designed to be as slippery as possible going forward, is a hull that is slippery going sideways (and slippery in all directions actually) and also tends to spin. Modern Sailboat hulls, make conventional sail thinkers believe you must have a lateral resistance enhancer on a kayak. Kayak hulls are designed to track and go in a straight line. This is achieved by having lateral resistance built in throughout the length of the hull, which is what makes them sail surprisingly well without lateral resistance enhancers. To demonstrate how a kayak has a lot more resistance going sideways than forward, imagine pushing a kayak that has an adult sitting in it in the forward direction. Most kayaks will easily glide 30 feet or more. Now imagine pushing that same kayak with an adult in it, in the sideways direction. Due to its lateral resistance, it will probably go about 1 or 2 feet after you are done pushing it. Or think about towing a kayak with a person in it, from the side vs towing a loaded kayak from the bow. The kayak towed from the side will be much slower due to its lateral resistance. In both examples you are testing and seeing, a kayaks lateral resistance is significant. Once a kayaks hull moves through the water, its lateral resistance increases by quite a bit. All this said, with a smart sized sail / one that is not too big, a kayak has plenty of lateral resistance without adding anything to it. Once you build up some speed, a kayaks lateral resistance increases dramatically. Kayaks do not sail as well as a purpose-built sailboat, but you can do no paddle sailing and reach across the wind, and even make some upwind progress. Of course, a purpose-built sailboat will sail better than a kayak will, but kayaks sail amazingly well. If you have an efficient sail, you do not need a lee board, or center board, or dagger board, or any lateral resistance enhancer to have a great kayak sailing experience. Falcon Sails focuses on keeping things simple, efficient, compact, reliable, and light weight with the best possible performance. All this can be had for less than 3.5 pounds, in a sail that can be dropped in seconds and folded down to the size of an umbrella in just a few more seconds. Lee boards and dagger boards add weight, complication, bulk, expense, drag etc.. Some people want to turn their kayaks into a sailboat. That is fine, but you will add weight, complication, bulk, expense, drag, set up time at the put in, tear down time at the take out, more rigging, more stuff to store, and if there is no wind, or too much wind, you are better off with a compact sail rig that gives you 70% or more of the sailing benefits in a package that weighs just over 3 pounds that can be lowered and compactly secured to the deck of your kayak and 100% out of the way in seconds. Everybody has their thing. If you want to have that perfect ideal incredible sailing experience in one situation, you will lose a lot in other situations. There is not a rig that will cover all situations perfectly. If you want simplicity and versatility, you will be happiest with a simplistic high-quality sail and rig for your kayak. As a lifelong sailor, I thought the same thing sailors typically think about lateral resistance appendages. I have sailed and owned a lot of different boats. I used to race and skipper and crew on a lot of different boats, and can say I am a decent sailor. My conventional sail thinking made me believe you need a lee board or something on a kayak to sail. Then I tried kayak sailing. The performance of a sail on a kayak amazed me. I was hooked instantly. I was surprised. That was even before there were good quality sail rigs available. Now that I can have a good quality sail rig, and a good airfoil shape, I will not go kayaking without a sail. After kayak sailing for the last 12 years and having paddle sailed thousands of miles, I have never used a lee board or anything like it. None of my friends use lee boards and none of us feel like we are missing anything. If you keep a good sail trimmed properly, oriented to the wind properly, and have at least 1.5 mph of hull speed, you can reach across the wind, and even make upwind progress of about 20 degrees above reaching. That is without paddling or a lee board or a dagger board on a standard stock kayak hull. Some kayaks will do even better than this. In general terms if you have good conditions, a good sail, and you use decent sail trim, you can easily sail 200 degrees and even up to 220 degrees without paddling and without the bother of any lateral resistance enhancers. If you paddle to keep your speed up and the sail oriented properly to the wind, a good sail, will generate useful propulsion all the way up to within 30 degrees of straight upwind. That is with or without a lateral resistance enhancer. In general, once your actual track is 10 degrees above reaching, you have to start paddling to keep things oriented properly. Initially a few small paddle strokes here and there will add a lot to your possible angles of attack. The more aggressively upwind your angle of attack is, the more you have to paddle. But still, you can gain useful propulsion to with 30 degrees of straight upwind. For example, you can paddle with a 2mph effort and go 3.5mph. You can speed up faster, slow down slower, and have a higher top speed. You can have a lot lower paddle stroke resistance as well and have a lot more fun while you are at it. With a little bit of planning, you can paddle upwind a little bit and reach back and forth all day long and not have to paddle much at all. Once your movement is 15 degrees above reaching, you cannot just sit there doing nothing, but you can avoid paddling and reach across the wind all day long, and even make upwind progress without paddling and without lateral resistance appendage or enhancers. With a good sail, kayaks sail very nicely. Just like when sailing a purpose-built sailboat, when kayak sailing to maximize your potential, you will have to think about what you are doing. When conditions are good, you can get useful propulsion to within 30 degrees of straight upwind. Anybody who does a lot of kayak sailing with a good quality rig will agree. If it is really windy, gusty, shifty, there are large waves, you are not thinking, you have too big of a sail, the paddle sailor is inexperienced, ect, the 30-degree number is going to grow. With a good sail and some practice you can have the same results. I wrote a bit more about this here. www.falconsails.com/KayakSailingFAQ.php#centerboard If you contact me at Falcon Sails, I can send to you a rough draft set of instructions for kayak sailing upwind. www.falconsails.com/contact.php
Hello one more time Aaron. I wrote about lee boards below, and the text was too long. So here is the part 2 of 2 so you can learn everything we worked hard to learn about lee boards. This video shows a clip of a upwind leg I was enjoying a few seasons ago. It is a lot of fun. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xjzld6MZhCI.html I was in a 14-foot-long Jackson Journey kayak and making some upwind progress without paddling. I could have made more upwind progress if I paddled, but I can sail with no paddle 210 out of 360 degrees. This kayak has a rounded hull so most kayaks will do a little better yet. This video shows me sailing and tacking upwind with no lee board or dagger board and almost zero paddling. Here are 2 videos of me enjoying my kayak and sailing up wind with very little paddling. facebook.com/falconsails/videos/1594936704274061 & facebook.com/falconsails/posts/4106133799451973 Both includes some really neat gps telemetry that makes it easy to see my actual movement. It shows me sailing 210 out of 360 possible degrees. This kayak has a rounded hull which makes it a average performer. If your kayak has a contoured hull, it will sail better / about 10 more degrees on both the port and starboard side. If I started paddling and kept the sail oriented to the wind properly and kept some motion to help my stock hull generate more lateral resistance, I could have had useful propulsion to within 30 degrees of straight upwind. This is very similar to motor sailing a sailboat. The motor alone can push the sailboat, but using the sail it will speed up faster, have a higher top end speed, will slow down slower, and require less effort to get to your destination. Here is another video of some friends and I enjoying a nice 18-mile paddle sail where we sail about 70% of the day. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RkbSSlYEYl0.html If you plan your day well, use good techniques, take advantage of reaching, and not dive downwind you can sail all day long without lee boards. Here are some pictures of a typical kayak sailing day, that include a track log of what we sailed and what we did not sail. I had several beginner kayak sailors with me, so I avoided some of the more difficult tacks and we still sailed about 75% of our miles. www.flickr.com/.../falco.../albums/72157712563766083 Here is a link to video and paddle sail report showing how much fun my friends and I had on a 5-day trip kayak sailing around Cedar Key on the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida. Look at the text. With a little bit of planning and smart sailing, we were able to sail 90% of all our lines. facebook.com/falconsails/videos/2408620615978528/ Here is a link that shows all the lines we recorded on our GPS. www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1OgAfpky2M25Ui6poZo6ANwL5a-_zGwc&ll=29.13438357058386%2C-83.0575005&z=14&fbclid=IwAR0RyoxfXOwNB-b2jKG-mATcsc5BKCNszuc2v9KiYjhdXLIxu2Ymre2RUqQ You can zoom in and see all the details. We sailed 90% of these lines. It was amazing. If you want to sail paddle sail in good conditions, it is easy to sail with zero paddling more than half your chosen lines even if you do not plan anything and just randomly pick lines. If you get smart and choose good lines, you can easily sail with zero paddling 80% of your lines and raise that to 100% of your lines. If you paddle while doing some of your sailing, you can use your sail all day long.
Aaron You asked about sail sizes. Falcon Sails has 3 different sizes which are mostly geared toward different wind levels more than what kayak you are sailing. Though kayak choice has a impact on sail choice as well. Here is a long canned explanation on sail sizes to consider. The 1.4 is nice to have on a light wind day or on a wider more stable kayak. The 1.1 is a really nice in between size. The 1.0 is for sure the go to size on a bigger wind day, or if your boat is smaller and tippier. You will be happy with any size, but one size will hit the sweet spot more often than the other. Here are a few general rules of thumb. If you have a narrow kayak, and see winds above 10mph regularly, the 1.0 is the way to go. If you have a super stable kayak / one that is over 28 inches wide and only rarely see winds over 15mph, the 1.4 would be the best size If you have a wide kayak and like big wind days over 15mph a 1.0 square meter sail is a great choice as well. The 1.1 is a nice in between size. No matter what kayak you have, all sizes are going to work nicely with any kayak you may own. If you buy any size sail with a complete rigging kit, you can add a sail only of any size you like at any time, and have any combination of sail you like at any time you hit the water. All sizes of Falcon Sails are compatible with the Falcon Sail rig. If you buy a Sail only of any size at any time, it will include everything you need to use it with your Falcon Sail rig. Skill level does play a small role in the choice, but in general a smart advanced kayak sailor will be no more likely to go with a big sail than a beginner. Advanced kayakers who enjoy sailing will typically go out in bigger winds and are best served by the 1.0. There is no reason to be overpowered. On a big wind day, a 1.0 square meter Falcon Sail can push any kayak to its maximum hull speed, and for sure as fast as the strongest paddler can paddle a kayak if the distance is more than a 50-yard sprint. In the ideal world you have all 3 sizes of sails. If you buy a 1.0 square meter sail with a complete rigging kit, you can buy a 1.4 square meter sail only any time you like. And of course, if you buy a 1.4 square meter sail with a complete rigging kit, you can buy a 1.0 square meter sail only any time you like as well. It is all the same thing for the 1.1 square meter sail as well. All Falcon Sails hardware is modular and interchangeable. We look at every order to make sure somebody who already has a Falcon Sail will be taken care of / will have all the hardware necessary to use it on a previously purchased rig with another size sail. The 1.0 sail only comes with a boom extension that will make it work with your 1.4 or 1.1 sail rig. The 1.1 sail only comes with a boom extension that will make it work with your 1.0 or 1.4 sail rig. The 1.4 sail only comes with a boom extension that will make it work with your 1.0 or 1.1 sail rig. So, if you ever buy another size of sail / sail only to use with your current rig, you will have everything you need. Changing sail sizes is easy to do. With just a little practice you will be able to change out a Falcon Sail in about 90 seconds or less. If you decide you like going out on really windy days, you may decide to order a 1.0 later. In any case, there is no sense in being overpowered as the 1.0 on a 15mph wind day, will push your kayak as fast as it will go, but still the 1.4 will be fine in pretty big wind and you can always drop it and stow it on your deck in the unlikely event it is not fun or you do not feel like you are in control. Here is a video that shows how to change sail sizes. facebook.com/falconsails/videos/768410241951446/
Thanks for the response. I’m paddling a touring kayak (Tiderace Xceed) that is 17 1/2 feet long and pretty narrow. I was thinking that having a sail as additional power when going on multi-day trips might speed things up significantly. Usually I won’t be out in heavy wind, but I’d probably opt for the small sail just in case. I haven’t paddled my boat enough yet to really know its performance in wind, but with waves coming from behind me it is hard to even notice them. I’m looking forward to paddling more and getting out for a few trips next spring. Your sails are definitely at the top of my list for possible modifications in the future. Thanks again.
You can drop a Falcon Sail in seconds by just releasing a cleat, and you can secure it to your deck compactly 100% out of the way in a few more seconds. Then you can raise a falcon Sail in seconds again as well. Here are some videos that show Falcon Sailors raising their sails at the very beginning of some videos. Lowering a sail is even easier. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--T39Peh1Ins.htmlsi=71klte6ntygLghrb ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tDpmn9ZcwCE.htmlsi=BdZqitnH96OitOqB ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gDtJtI188DQ.htmlsi=lMhhS2ucFh0IVihP ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2i8_EEExqNg.htmlsi=AoGmUFBihnaT4eO0 Here are some pictures of kayaks with Falcon Sails in the down position. www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=30659399%40N02&sort=date-taken-desc&text=down&view_all=1
Very informative video. Considering installing a Falcon sail on a Tempest 170. Can anyone speak to the difficulty of paddling with the sail in the stowed position?
When you put a Falcon Sail in the down position on a sea kayak it is just about 100% out of the way. It is light weight and compact. You can see different kayaks with the Falcon Sail rigged and in the down position here. www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=30659399%40N02&sort=date-taken-desc&text=down&view_all=1 Look for the sea kayaks and you will see the sail out of the way. Sorry for the slow reply to your question. We were out of town in Ireland teaching kayak sailing which slowed us down on social media quite a bit. You can see some pictures of us with our sea kayaks on this great trip here. www.flickr.com/photos/falconsails/albums/72177720312201144 Please call our shop if you have any questions. www.falconsails.com/contact.php
I just notice your question. I am sorry I forgot to answer it. We have helped a lot of people rig Falcon Sails on their Pakayak Kayaks. The rig exactly like a rigid kayak does, and they sail nicely. The solid nature of the Pakayaks is all you need. Wind pushing on the sail is not a problem for Pakayaks. I know there are several facebook posts I have seen, but I can only find this one. Here is a link. facebook.com/groups/kayaksail/posts/783743106449950
