Child of the Sea – Ottilia - Sailing in the Philippines
The Child of the Sea design in its simplicity could be a very economical boat to build.
It is for me a radical concept/design. I wanted to experience nature as close as possible rather than the modern urban comforts of modern yachts with all the high technology and electronic equipment. The double canoe boat has a simple beam platform structure, the deck is on top of the crossbeams so that running around is unobstructed which makes it easier to handle the boat. The seating position in the cockpit is facing forward which I personally find very comfortable and safe when the canoe boat rides through rougher sea conditions. Both my compasses are mounted on top of the hatches in front of the cockpit respectively – always visible and in line with the boat’s centreline. I personally would stretch the cockpit a little bit, one can then stretch the legs and also provides a little more space to place a small cooler inside or ditty bag. Behind the cockpit seat the MOB equipment is stowed away. The experience I made is that the cockpit area is where people socialised most of the time, for one reasons my crew where always near the helmsman and at the rear of the boat, there is less up/down motion when sailing in choppy seas. The rear end of the deck is also drier and protected from spray water.
I felt safe inside my cockpit when sailing in rougher weather conditions. The long overhangs of the child of the sea design gives for smoother rising to the sea. The bow axe has an aesthetic appearance, it also has the function to split big waves – it works!
The ethnic canoe design has elegant hull lines and it has good sound insulation. I did not notice any pounding wave noise. I spent many wonderful nights on the boat. I hardly noticed any slapping noise created by the little waves splashing against the sides of the hulls. The slender hulls also protect you against extreme temperatures. The cabin space was always dry. The flexi space certainly has its advantages, the bunks can be used for general purpose area and there is plenty stowage space below the bunk floors. It is very comfortable to sleep down below the deck. The front table/shelve in the one hull served as a mini galley for cooking. I simply used a camping gas stove to prepare meals. In general my interior furniture is from the camping store rather than from yacht chandlers. The port bow is where I made my meals and the starboard bow area is where I stored my first aid equipment. A good idea is to build a small wooden galley box so that cooking can also be done on top of the deck. The food and beverage was placed in the forward bow storage area. The ground tackle and ropes was stored at the aft end of the boat. My other paraphernalia I stored beneath the bunk floors. The space inside the rear hatch area I placed my rucksack, whenever I needed something it was handy.
The hatches are big so that getting in and out of the cabin is easy. I would prefer to have sliding hatches. This is a little bit of the downside with my hatches, opening and closing is obstructed by the shrouds and I had to secure the hatches with rope to prevent them from closing accidentally whenever a wind blow occurred. I strongly recommend non slip paint on the hatches. The deck area is great. To get aboard Ottilia I made a simple bamboo ladder lashed to the aft end of the deck. On several occasions I organised dolphin watching trips with 3 to 10 guests aboard Ottilia. It was interesting to observe the guests aboard Ottilia as to how they make use of the flexi space. A couple would go sit inside the bunks and have private conversation, while another couple would disappear below the deck on the other side, the other cockpit has enough space for a mother and two small children to sit inside, and the remaining people each had their own little reserved space.
The double canoe design does not have any safety railings – however all my guests felt safe on Ottilia in favourable weather conditions. The people have a fantastic view in all directions. They could truly sense the feeling of freedom. The negative side of not having safety railings is that in rough weather it is not safe to runabout on the open deck. There are only the forestays and shrouds to grab hold of when it gets a little bit bumpy on the water. Safety on Tama Moana is a major concern I have and is not yet resolved to my satisfaction. Child of the Sea is designed only for the mother sea, for me it is a modern version of an ancient Polynesian double canoe boat. It has a simple steering system using a paddle mounted with ropes to the side of the boat. When I first reviewed the study plans it looked all very simple to me. I underestimated the concept of steering a boat with a paddle. Simplicity does not necessarily mean that things will be easier to handle or to be more efficient. One has to learn how to handle the boat with a paddle effectively. I’m still learning to improve my skills using a paddle to manoeuvre the double canoe boat. The original plan and sketches of the rudder attachment provided by the designers was not satisfying. The paddle works alright, but the lashings were not tight enough. The rope stretched a little bit, or it slipped on the cleat so that the paddle was loosely mounted to the side of the hull.
When cruising along trying to keep the boat on steady course was a difficult task. As the boat’s velocity increased the more muscle power was required to balance the paddle, it kept on deflecting either against the rudder boss or it pulled on the bottom lashing. On one occasion the rope simply ripped out of the paddle because of the resistance and the force of the water was too strong. This happened when cruising at 12 Kn. The paddle pulled on the loosened rope alternatively hit the rudder boss in a fashion that I was not able to keep the boat on a steady track. The GPS plotted a horrible zigzag track. It all seems very easy and simple, when you enter shallow water you slack off some rope at the top/bottom ends and the rudder can be used at a flatter angle. First of all, when I tried to hold a loosened paddle which is 2.5 meters long, and the other longer part of the rudder was immersed in water I experienced difficulties trying to steer the boat, I often failed to keep the boat on a steady course. Secondly, there is a lot of leverage force the way the rudder is attached to the hull. It takes substantial amount of strength to hold the paddle in a correct position. The forces working on the long paddle is too big for mister average to handle. In still waters with no wind, zero current and moving at slow speed (1-2 Kn) was easy to manoeuvre around. The scenario is different when a moderate wind is blowing, entering shallow waters at greater speed (+3 Kn) with waves breaking at the edge of a reef and a strong current from the side will make it difficult to steer the boat steadily. It was sometimes a difficult task to steer my boat through waters with a loose paddle holding it at a shallower angle. This was very frustrating and tiresome due to the leverage effect. I anticipated many tricky situations, in some scenarios I simply had to back out of shallow waters and head back out to the open sea and give it a new try to moor the boat. Another observation I made is the fact that the paddle is sluggish when cruising along at a speed of 1.5 to 2 Kn. The reason I believe is that the paddle is fixed at an angle to the side/cross section of the hull. When you rotate the paddle to one side to point the boat in another direction the paddle acts like a break. Perhaps the lateral resistance is not sufficient enough because the part of the paddle below the keel line is undersized. I then fixed the paddle in a vertical position, the steering became more effective! How do we make the steering more efficient and reliable for safer cruising? My first priority was to get the paddle and steering to work properly. I made my own temporary crude solution. As a start I used 16 mm stainless steel eyebolts with a pin to mount the paddle to the hull.
That made a remarkable difference when I first tested it. I was able to manoeuvre the boat a lot easier with only one hand on the tiller bar. There was no longer the deflecting movement of the paddle when turning it from one side or to the other. I experienced several occasions where I hit a coral block when cruising in shallow areas. The paddle gets hit first, it lifted so that the pin dislocated itself from the eyebolts and the rudder was loose. I secured a safety rope to the paddle and I was able to recover quickly in the above situation. It worked ok!
So far I did not connect the one tiller bar to the opposite paddle. One reason was that if a paddle bust, I still have a spare one left over. With this in mind, I got the idea of carrying three paddles. The big paddle for fast blue water cruising. A short paddle for shallow water and a third paddle as a spare one. While I used the rope lashings for the paddle I observed that when on a starboard tack, the paddle on the port side was pushed against the rudder boss – makes sense, rather than having pulling forces and stretching the rope. I recommend that the rudder boss to be a little bit beefier. When I was cruising along at 7 Kn with a current flowing perpendicular to the side of the boat as well as waves working on the beam the rudder is exposed to greater force. I think that this could be a bit stressful on the hull where the paddle is attached. At these two points where the rudder lashings are, the hull needs to be strengthened by adding an extra plywood pad or hardwood. That is my opinion and I would feel more comfortable. I did hear cracking noises, the round protrusions on the upper side got beaten and are broken. They did not withstand the forces of the working paddle. The rudder boss has also a dent and the two holes where the bolts are attached to it are worn out from the working forces of the paddle - after cruising approximately 1000 nautical miles. To conclude, the paddle works to steer the canoe boat, it is unique. What matters me is to find a better solution to fix the paddles in a convenient way so that I can manoeuvre the boat effectively in any situation. With my crude mechanism for the steering I managed 22 hours at the tiller non stop in weather conditions moderate to rough. The next morning I had no pain in my arm. I have not tried a self steering system or wind vane yet. I first wanted to find out how the boat performs by only using the paddle with the tiller bar. I think that there is still an improvement necessary to make the steering more effective for safer cruising.
The part that fascinated me the most about this ethnic design is the crab claw rig. How does it perform? There is a lot of controversy as far as this type of rig is concerned. I had many people aboard Ottilia, sailors, divers and land lubbers, they all had their own theories of working the cc sails.
I was amused to see how they fiddled around with the ropes. The best way was to forget about the European style rig and I started to experiment with the cc sails. While Tama Moana was under construction I had doubts about the choice of material for the spars. I first used laminated wooden spars. The spars were made of red lauan which is Philippine mahagony hardwood – it was an experiment. The first time I tried to raise the mainsail was a hard task to fulfil. The weight of the wooden spars was too heavy for one person to handle it. I then tried a handy billy 3:1, and used the mechanical advantage to raise the sail. That worked out well, but, at that time I did not realize the other risks and certain danger that lured higher up. During my first sea trials my main yard broke where the halyard is attached. I then tried a single bamboo. Raising the bamboo spar was a lot easier since it was lighter than the wooden spar. But, it broke at exactly the same spot. I then suspected that the main mast is too short to support such a long spar. Almost 2/3 of the sail area is above the mast top. I modified and reduced the mainsail to approximately 17 sq. meters. The main spar is now 7.3 meters and the boom is 6.7 meters long. With the modified mainsail and spars tacking is now no longer a problem provided the yard is in upright position. Before the modifications the main boom had to be lifted over the mizzen mast in order to tack. It made me mad when in the irons! The same disadvantage was encountered when trying to jibe. The long spar and boom got tangled up in the shrouds when I changed the tack forward or when changing the sail to the other side. I got into pretty nasty situations. On one occasion I had my sails brailed to the masts, when the wind got fresh the main sail unlashed itself and the boom got stuck in the mizzen mast and the sail was torn apart. In order to reduce the leverage forces on the spars the masts must be of greater height. The other hassles I encountered are when to downhaul the sail to the deck floor. In windy conditions this was not easy, the end part of the spars got tangled in the shrouds or when the control lines and the vang were loosened the tack got sometimes stuck in the forestays. With the modified smaller mainsail this resolved some of the problems I encountered.
The personal observation I made is that the majority of all Polynesian canoe boats have a mast/spar ratio of at least 2:3 parts respectively and they used bamboo for their spars. This will also give answers to the questions and doubts I had about the rigging. I removed all my wooden spars and replaced them with treated bamboo. I gave bamboo another chance – I was not disappointed. I lashed two thin bamboos together. A third piece of bamboo can be lashed in the middle section to add stiffness. Although my mast/spar ratio is only 1:2 parts my bamboo spars stood up with winds up to Force 6 without reefing.
They bend like crazy, but, did not break. I supported the upper side of the main spar using running backstays. It works. I had two on each side, 6mm rope is sufficient. A trice line was used for temporary wind spilling. In the beginning I had a real mess on my deck, ropes and lines everywhere. This is where I am still experimenting as to the ideal layout for the running rig. Sometimes ropes would get tangled up or stuck between the deck planking. This is another point to consider, it would be a good idea to fit a strip of wood along the ends of the deck planking to avoid ropes getting stuck in between the planks. This has happened to me many a times in particular the control lines. The control lines running to the sides of the tack are useful. The control lines are used to adjust the position of the tack and a vang is used to pull the tack aft to move the sail over to the lee so that the sail can get its aerodynamic full shape. When lowering the tack I lower the CE and the cc sail is a little less powerful. I noticed that when sailing closed-hauled the most power I got out of the cc sail is in the upright position. When on close reach or beam reach the most sail power is gained in the upright or in tilted position depending on the wind force. In light winds I had my sails in the upright position, and in stronger winds the tack would be tilted. The cc sail is very versatile. To achieve a well balanced boat I had to practice by swinging the tack fore and aft. It is possible to keep the boat on course without the paddle provided the divided rig is perfectly balanced and wind condition remains constant for a longer period of time. I do not know how this will affect the leeway without the paddle? I still have to do a lot of practising in order to master the cc sails to get the most power out of them. Telltales will also help to see if the sail is set properly. For the main sheet I used two ropes, one sheet served as sheeting and outhaul, while the second sheet is fastened to the opposite side of the boat and served as a preventer line to avoid a patent jibe and also kept the boom in a stable position similar to a vang.
When I was sailing in short choppy seas the boom would bounce up and down due to the boats motion. With the double sheeting system I could keep the boom tight under control and the sail shape was kept aerodynamic. The strop near the mast top kept the yard close to the mast and serve as a safety precaution. In case the halyard was loosened the strop will prevent the yard from falling down. The strop is necessary for raising and lowering the sail. Sometimes I used a second strop at the bottom of the yard just above the tack and tied it around the bottom of the mast. That reduced the tension on the control lines. The tack was secured and when in upright position tacking was convenient. Sailing just with one sail is also no problem, in fact it made sailing a lot more comfortable especially when short handed. It does have a little disadvantage. The main mast is right in the front of the deck which will affect the centre of lateral resistance. I experienced strong weather helm especially when the big sail was hoisted. Sailing with only one sail has another credit. I had more free deck space in the aft area. I could set up a little canvas sunshade. It does get very hot in the tropics. I got sunburn several times. With this in mind I made a drawing illustrating Tama Moana just with one mast and sail. (See illustration) I also made a drawing to demonstrate a double canoe boat with wing sails. To summarise, I can approve the cc sail to be a very versatile rig, powerful and the fact that I was able to point the boat as high as 45 degrees to true wind. Tacking the child of the sea is possible, but, it takes a lot of practising doing it provided the winds are favourable. Jibing is very easy and the best speed I got out of Ottilia was 12 Kn in force 4/5 both main and mizzen sail hoisted, and 8 Kn in force 6 with only small sail up front sailing on beam reach. I’m not able to make any statements as to how Ottilia behaves in a gale force wind. I’m sure that even in stronger winds the vessel will be seaworthy. Finally, there is still a lot to be researched about this ethnic double canoe boat and improvements are necessary. In the meantime I can say this design is a great sailboat for short distance inter island cruising. I had an exciting time cruising around Bohol Islands, Philippines. All the people onboard Ottilia had great fun! Yet there are still many things to be solved. When all the improvements are made, then I believe Child of the Sea is fit for long distance blue water sailing.
The Child of the Sea design in its simplicity could be a very economical boat to build.
It is for me a radical concept/design. I wanted to experience nature as close as possible rather than the modern urban comforts of modern yachts with all the high technology and electronic equipment. The double canoe boat has a simple beam platform structure, the deck is on top of the crossbeams so that running around is unobstructed which makes it easier to handle the boat. The seating position in the cockpit is facing forward which I personally find very comfortable and safe when the canoe boat rides through rougher sea conditions. Both my compasses are mounted on top of the hatches in front of the cockpit respectively – always visible and in line with the boat’s centreline. I personally would stretch the cockpit a little bit, one can then stretch the legs and also provides a little more space to place a small cooler inside or ditty bag. Behind the cockpit seat the MOB equipment is stowed away. The experience I made is that the cockpit area is where people socialised most of the time, for one reasons my crew where always near the helmsman and at the rear of the boat, there is less up/down motion when sailing in choppy seas. The rear end of the deck is also drier and protected from spray water.
I felt safe inside my cockpit when sailing in rougher weather conditions. The long overhangs of the child of the sea design gives for smoother rising to the sea. The bow axe has an aesthetic appearance, it also has the function to split big waves – it works!
The ethnic canoe design has elegant hull lines and it has good sound insulation. I did not notice any pounding wave noise. I spent many wonderful nights on the boat. I hardly noticed any slapping noise created by the little waves splashing against the sides of the hulls. The slender hulls also protect you against extreme temperatures. The cabin space was always dry. The flexi space certainly has its advantages, the bunks can be used for general purpose area and there is plenty stowage space below the bunk floors. It is very comfortable to sleep down below the deck. The front table/shelve in the one hull served as a mini galley for cooking. I simply used a camping gas stove to prepare meals. In general my interior furniture is from the camping store rather than from yacht chandlers. The port bow is where I made my meals and the starboard bow area is where I stored my first aid equipment. A good idea is to build a small wooden galley box so that cooking can also be done on top of the deck. The food and beverage was placed in the forward bow storage area. The ground tackle and ropes was stored at the aft end of the boat. My other paraphernalia I stored beneath the bunk floors. The space inside the rear hatch area I placed my rucksack, whenever I needed something it was handy.
The hatches are big so that getting in and out of the cabin is easy. I would prefer to have sliding hatches. This is a little bit of the downside with my hatches, opening and closing is obstructed by the shrouds and I had to secure the hatches with rope to prevent them from closing accidentally whenever a wind blow occurred. I strongly recommend non slip paint on the hatches. The deck area is great. To get aboard Ottilia I made a simple bamboo ladder lashed to the aft end of the deck. On several occasions I organised dolphin watching trips with 3 to 10 guests aboard Ottilia. It was interesting to observe the guests aboard Ottilia as to how they make use of the flexi space. A couple would go sit inside the bunks and have private conversation, while another couple would disappear below the deck on the other side, the other cockpit has enough space for a mother and two small children to sit inside, and the remaining people each had their own little reserved space.
The double canoe design does not have any safety railings – however all my guests felt safe on Ottilia in favourable weather conditions. The people have a fantastic view in all directions. They could truly sense the feeling of freedom. The negative side of not having safety railings is that in rough weather it is not safe to runabout on the open deck. There are only the forestays and shrouds to grab hold of when it gets a little bit bumpy on the water. Safety on Tama Moana is a major concern I have and is not yet resolved to my satisfaction. Child of the Sea is designed only for the mother sea, for me it is a modern version of an ancient Polynesian double canoe boat. It has a simple steering system using a paddle mounted with ropes to the side of the boat. When I first reviewed the study plans it looked all very simple to me. I underestimated the concept of steering a boat with a paddle. Simplicity does not necessarily mean that things will be easier to handle or to be more efficient. One has to learn how to handle the boat with a paddle effectively. I’m still learning to improve my skills using a paddle to manoeuvre the double canoe boat. The original plan and sketches of the rudder attachment provided by the designers was not satisfying. The paddle works alright, but the lashings were not tight enough. The rope stretched a little bit, or it slipped on the cleat so that the paddle was loosely mounted to the side of the hull.
When cruising along trying to keep the boat on steady course was a difficult task. As the boat’s velocity increased the more muscle power was required to balance the paddle, it kept on deflecting either against the rudder boss or it pulled on the bottom lashing. On one occasion the rope simply ripped out of the paddle because of the resistance and the force of the water was too strong. This happened when cruising at 12 Kn. The paddle pulled on the loosened rope alternatively hit the rudder boss in a fashion that I was not able to keep the boat on a steady track. The GPS plotted a horrible zigzag track. It all seems very easy and simple, when you enter shallow water you slack off some rope at the top/bottom ends and the rudder can be used at a flatter angle. First of all, when I tried to hold a loosened paddle which is 2.5 meters long, and the other longer part of the rudder was immersed in water I experienced difficulties trying to steer the boat, I often failed to keep the boat on a steady course. Secondly, there is a lot of leverage force the way the rudder is attached to the hull. It takes substantial amount of strength to hold the paddle in a correct position. The forces working on the long paddle is too big for mister average to handle. In still waters with no wind, zero current and moving at slow speed (1-2 Kn) was easy to manoeuvre around. The scenario is different when a moderate wind is blowing, entering shallow waters at greater speed (+3 Kn) with waves breaking at the edge of a reef and a strong current from the side will make it difficult to steer the boat steadily. It was sometimes a difficult task to steer my boat through waters with a loose paddle holding it at a shallower angle. This was very frustrating and tiresome due to the leverage effect. I anticipated many tricky situations, in some scenarios I simply had to back out of shallow waters and head back out to the open sea and give it a new try to moor the boat. Another observation I made is the fact that the paddle is sluggish when cruising along at a speed of 1.5 to 2 Kn. The reason I believe is that the paddle is fixed at an angle to the side/cross section of the hull. When you rotate the paddle to one side to point the boat in another direction the paddle acts like a break. Perhaps the lateral resistance is not sufficient enough because the part of the paddle below the keel line is undersized. I then fixed the paddle in a vertical position, the steering became more effective! How do we make the steering more efficient and reliable for safer cruising? My first priority was to get the paddle and steering to work properly. I made my own temporary crude solution. As a start I used 16 mm stainless steel eyebolts with a pin to mount the paddle to the hull.
That made a remarkable difference when I first tested it. I was able to manoeuvre the boat a lot easier with only one hand on the tiller bar. There was no longer the deflecting movement of the paddle when turning it from one side or to the other. I experienced several occasions where I hit a coral block when cruising in shallow areas. The paddle gets hit first, it lifted so that the pin dislocated itself from the eyebolts and the rudder was loose. I secured a safety rope to the paddle and I was able to recover quickly in the above situation. It worked ok!
So far I did not connect the one tiller bar to the opposite paddle. One reason was that if a paddle bust, I still have a spare one left over. With this in mind, I got the idea of carrying three paddles. The big paddle for fast blue water cruising. A short paddle for shallow water and a third paddle as a spare one. While I used the rope lashings for the paddle I observed that when on a starboard tack, the paddle on the port side was pushed against the rudder boss – makes sense, rather than having pulling forces and stretching the rope. I recommend that the rudder boss to be a little bit beefier. When I was cruising along at 7 Kn with a current flowing perpendicular to the side of the boat as well as waves working on the beam the rudder is exposed to greater force. I think that this could be a bit stressful on the hull where the paddle is attached. At these two points where the rudder lashings are, the hull needs to be strengthened by adding an extra plywood pad or hardwood. That is my opinion and I would feel more comfortable. I did hear cracking noises, the round protrusions on the upper side got beaten and are broken. They did not withstand the forces of the working paddle. The rudder boss has also a dent and the two holes where the bolts are attached to it are worn out from the working forces of the paddle - after cruising approximately 1000 nautical miles. To conclude, the paddle works to steer the canoe boat, it is unique. What matters me is to find a better solution to fix the paddles in a convenient way so that I can manoeuvre the boat effectively in any situation. With my crude mechanism for the steering I managed 22 hours at the tiller non stop in weather conditions moderate to rough. The next morning I had no pain in my arm. I have not tried a self steering system or wind vane yet. I first wanted to find out how the boat performs by only using the paddle with the tiller bar. I think that there is still an improvement necessary to make the steering more effective for safer cruising.
The part that fascinated me the most about this ethnic design is the crab claw rig. How does it perform? There is a lot of controversy as far as this type of rig is concerned. I had many people aboard Ottilia, sailors, divers and land lubbers, they all had their own theories of working the cc sails.
I was amused to see how they fiddled around with the ropes. The best way was to forget about the European style rig and I started to experiment with the cc sails. While Tama Moana was under construction I had doubts about the choice of material for the spars. I first used laminated wooden spars. The spars were made of red lauan which is Philippine mahagony hardwood – it was an experiment. The first time I tried to raise the mainsail was a hard task to fulfil. The weight of the wooden spars was too heavy for one person to handle it. I then tried a handy billy 3:1, and used the mechanical advantage to raise the sail. That worked out well, but, at that time I did not realize the other risks and certain danger that lured higher up. During my first sea trials my main yard broke where the halyard is attached. I then tried a single bamboo. Raising the bamboo spar was a lot easier since it was lighter than the wooden spar. But, it broke at exactly the same spot. I then suspected that the main mast is too short to support such a long spar. Almost 2/3 of the sail area is above the mast top. I modified and reduced the mainsail to approximately 17 sq. meters. The main spar is now 7.3 meters and the boom is 6.7 meters long. With the modified mainsail and spars tacking is now no longer a problem provided the yard is in upright position. Before the modifications the main boom had to be lifted over the mizzen mast in order to tack. It made me mad when in the irons! The same disadvantage was encountered when trying to jibe. The long spar and boom got tangled up in the shrouds when I changed the tack forward or when changing the sail to the other side. I got into pretty nasty situations. On one occasion I had my sails brailed to the masts, when the wind got fresh the main sail unlashed itself and the boom got stuck in the mizzen mast and the sail was torn apart. In order to reduce the leverage forces on the spars the masts must be of greater height. The other hassles I encountered are when to downhaul the sail to the deck floor. In windy conditions this was not easy, the end part of the spars got tangled in the shrouds or when the control lines and the vang were loosened the tack got sometimes stuck in the forestays. With the modified smaller mainsail this resolved some of the problems I encountered.
The personal observation I made is that the majority of all Polynesian canoe boats have a mast/spar ratio of at least 2:3 parts respectively and they used bamboo for their spars. This will also give answers to the questions and doubts I had about the rigging. I removed all my wooden spars and replaced them with treated bamboo. I gave bamboo another chance – I was not disappointed. I lashed two thin bamboos together. A third piece of bamboo can be lashed in the middle section to add stiffness. Although my mast/spar ratio is only 1:2 parts my bamboo spars stood up with winds up to Force 6 without reefing.
They bend like crazy, but, did not break. I supported the upper side of the main spar using running backstays. It works. I had two on each side, 6mm rope is sufficient. A trice line was used for temporary wind spilling. In the beginning I had a real mess on my deck, ropes and lines everywhere. This is where I am still experimenting as to the ideal layout for the running rig. Sometimes ropes would get tangled up or stuck between the deck planking. This is another point to consider, it would be a good idea to fit a strip of wood along the ends of the deck planking to avoid ropes getting stuck in between the planks. This has happened to me many a times in particular the control lines. The control lines running to the sides of the tack are useful. The control lines are used to adjust the position of the tack and a vang is used to pull the tack aft to move the sail over to the lee so that the sail can get its aerodynamic full shape. When lowering the tack I lower the CE and the cc sail is a little less powerful. I noticed that when sailing closed-hauled the most power I got out of the cc sail is in the upright position. When on close reach or beam reach the most sail power is gained in the upright or in tilted position depending on the wind force. In light winds I had my sails in the upright position, and in stronger winds the tack would be tilted. The cc sail is very versatile. To achieve a well balanced boat I had to practice by swinging the tack fore and aft. It is possible to keep the boat on course without the paddle provided the divided rig is perfectly balanced and wind condition remains constant for a longer period of time. I do not know how this will affect the leeway without the paddle? I still have to do a lot of practising in order to master the cc sails to get the most power out of them. Telltales will also help to see if the sail is set properly. For the main sheet I used two ropes, one sheet served as sheeting and outhaul, while the second sheet is fastened to the opposite side of the boat and served as a preventer line to avoid a patent jibe and also kept the boom in a stable position similar to a vang.
When I was sailing in short choppy seas the boom would bounce up and down due to the boats motion. With the double sheeting system I could keep the boom tight under control and the sail shape was kept aerodynamic. The strop near the mast top kept the yard close to the mast and serve as a safety precaution. In case the halyard was loosened the strop will prevent the yard from falling down. The strop is necessary for raising and lowering the sail. Sometimes I used a second strop at the bottom of the yard just above the tack and tied it around the bottom of the mast. That reduced the tension on the control lines. The tack was secured and when in upright position tacking was convenient. Sailing just with one sail is also no problem, in fact it made sailing a lot more comfortable especially when short handed. It does have a little disadvantage. The main mast is right in the front of the deck which will affect the centre of lateral resistance. I experienced strong weather helm especially when the big sail was hoisted. Sailing with only one sail has another credit. I had more free deck space in the aft area. I could set up a little canvas sunshade. It does get very hot in the tropics. I got sunburn several times. With this in mind I made a drawing illustrating Tama Moana just with one mast and sail. (See illustration) I also made a drawing to demonstrate a double canoe boat with wing sails. To summarise, I can approve the cc sail to be a very versatile rig, powerful and the fact that I was able to point the boat as high as 45 degrees to true wind. Tacking the child of the sea is possible, but, it takes a lot of practising doing it provided the winds are favourable. Jibing is very easy and the best speed I got out of Ottilia was 12 Kn in force 4/5 both main and mizzen sail hoisted, and 8 Kn in force 6 with only small sail up front sailing on beam reach. I’m not able to make any statements as to how Ottilia behaves in a gale force wind. I’m sure that even in stronger winds the vessel will be seaworthy. Finally, there is still a lot to be researched about this ethnic double canoe boat and improvements are necessary. In the meantime I can say this design is a great sailboat for short distance inter island cruising. I had an exciting time cruising around Bohol Islands, Philippines. All the people onboard Ottilia had great fun! Yet there are still many things to be solved. When all the improvements are made, then I believe Child of the Sea is fit for long distance blue water sailing.
