Three Hundred Things a Bright Boy Can Do

by Unknown

When the curve is all in deep water, and there is a pool after B, the boat ought not to be turned too quickly in endeavouring to avoid the rock C, else it will sometimes then enter the eddy below B, which runs up stream sometimes for fifty yards. In such a case the absurd position you are thereby thrown into naturally causes you to struggle to resist or stem this current; but I have found, after repeated trials of every plan I could think of, that if once the back current has taken the canoe it is best to let the boat swing with the eddy so as to make an entire circuit, until the bow can come back towards B (and below it), when the nose of the boat may be again thrust into the main stream, which will now turn the boat round again to its proper course. Much time and labour may be spent uselessly in a wrong and obstinate contest with an eddy.

In Fig. 6, where the three rocks are in a straight line, and the middle one is a breaker, an instance is given when the proper course must be kept by backing during the first part of it. We must suppose that the canoeist has attained the power of backing with perfect ease, for this will be quite necessary if he intends to take his boat safely through several hundred combinations of sunk rocks and breakers. Presuming this, the case in Fig. 6 will be easy enough, though a little reflection will show that it might be very difficult, or almost impossible, if the canoeist could give only a forward motion to the boat. To pass most artistically, then, through the group of rocks in Fig. 6 the stern should be turned towards A, as shown in the diagram, and the passage across the current, between A and B, is to be effected solely by backing (and chiefly in this case with the left hand) until the furthest point of the right of the curve is reached, with the boat’s length still as before in the position represented in the figure. Then the forward action of both hands will take the canoe speedily through the passage between B and C.

Cases of this sort are rendered more difficult by the distance of C from the point above A, where you are situated when the instant decision has to be made as to what to do, and it would usually be imprudent to rise in the boat in such a place to survey the rock C. If it is evident that the plan described above will not be applicable, because other and future circumstances will require the boat’s bow to emerge in the opposite direction (pointing to the right), then you must enter forwards, and must back between B and C, so as to be ready, after passing C, to drive forward, and to the right. It is plain that this is very much more difficult than the former case, for your backing now has to be done against the full stream from the breaker B.

In all these instances the action of the wind has been entirely omitted from consideration, but it must not be forgotten that a strong breeze materially complicates the problem before the canoeist. This is especially so when the wind is aft; when it is ahead you are not likely to forget its presence. A strong fair wind (that has scarcely been felt with your back to it) and the swift stream and the boat’s speed from paddling being all in one direction, the breeze will suddenly become a new element in the case when you try to cross above a rock as in Fig. 1, and find that the wind carries you broadside on against all your calculations.

As for sailing among rocks in a current, if the rapid is long the canoe must be directed solely by the paddle, and in short groups of rocks the course to be steered by a boat sailing is the same as if it were paddled, though the action of the wind has to be carefully taken into consideration.

In all these things free boldness and skill come best after lessons of experience, and the canoeist will find himself ready and able, at the end of his voyage, to sail down a rapid which he would have approached very timidly, at the beginning, even with the paddle.

But perhaps enough has been said for the experienced paddler, while surely more than enough has been said to show the tyro aspirant what varied work he has to do, and how interesting are the circumstances that will occupy his attention on a delightful river cruise.

The Boy as Yacht Owner.—Boys who live near a sheet of water may like to know how to make—or to have made for them by a carpenter—a homely rough-hewn yacht. They may not be able to win the American cup with it, but they may have much fun on board, and it will be difficult to wreck. Indeed, it is said to be impossible to upset a yacht of this pattern. The natives of South America use yachts of this build, and even go to sea in this kind of craft. We do not advise our readers to round Cape Horn or to cross the Bay of Biscay in a yacht like this, but on a lake or river they are not likely to come to grief. All the same, skill in swimming should precede boating of all kinds.

A, B, C, D represent six pine logs, each one fourteen feet long and eight inches in diameter. The six joined together make a deck four feet wide. Both ends of each log are roughly trimmed with an adze and underneath each log is bevelled along three feet of its length at each end. The middle eight feet of each log is thus left in its natural state, round and still bearing its bark; but three feet at each end of each log is trimmed to slope and taper towards its termination. E is four feet seven inches from the bow and represents a hole down to the water two inches wide and eighteen inches long. It is formed by cutting an inch away from each of the two centre logs to make two inches, and making the length of the indentation eighteen inches on each of these two logs. The purpose of the hole is to hold a centre-board, which is passed through it to act instead of a keel. It is a piece of two-inch plank eighteen inches wide. Next the bow ends of the logs are fastened together by what joiners call rabbeting and bolting. Fig. 2 represents a rabbet, and gives the dimensions. One of these rabbets is cut upon the upper side of each log, one foot six inches from the bow, so that when all the logs have been served exactly alike, and they have been placed in position side by side, these indentations form an unbroken channel across the boat. Now a piece of the toughest dry wood—the bolt—shaped like Fig. 3, should be made to fit this groove, and should then be placed therein. At H, I, in Fig. 1 bore with an auger holes three-quarters of an inch in diameter through the bolt, and right on through the log. Into these holes fit pegs of hard, very dry wood.