Testing our New Kayak Catamaran System in the Columbia River Gorge

Just a visual tour of the new kayak catamaran system in action. For this test we camped for 3 days in the Columbia River Gorge, sailing in winds from 8-40 miles per hour! Overall the system handled well and we'll be releasing an in-depth trip report next week. The catamaran system is already included in our online skin on frame kayak building course and F1 and LPB kayak plans, which you can find at cape-falcon-kayak.thinkific.com
Our sailing system will be available in 2023.
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[@macrumpton]

Amazing performance from a pair of slightly larger than handkerchief sized sails! The gorge tourist bureau should give you a grant for making it look irresistible.

[@mikelewis6629]

That was very impressive boat handling in high wind and waves! It looked for a minute like you were in skin-on-frame submarines! Thanks for sharing -- loved the guitar track too.

[@kimnenninger7226]

Great video. Brilliant idea.

[@jchambers1191]

That is very impressive! Thanks for sharing your work 🙂

[@JohnWBarry-ml7mw]

Brian, what a joy to watch! Super day, super boats, super weather, and outstanding videography/music. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your enchanted life!

[@richardwill935]

Truly inspiring and beautiful!

[@samarasbasilios5207]

Hi and love from greece.i really appreciate passion and evolution in your work.....keep doing what you are doing because you are inspiration for kayakers like me and so meny others.....

[@johnvassoura]

totally awesome sauce

[@michaelpickford4294]

Awesome work. Incredible how well they handle such strong wind and even under one sail the catamaran moves along nicely! Looked like an amazing adventure.

[@DaveDoesOutdoors]

Wow looks amazing well done 👍🏽

[@FrankLadd]

Great video!

[@EnricoV8]

Fantastico!

[@kevincasey2947]

Awesome video and music!

[@martinkelly900]

Amazing! Congratulations to both of you for getting this to work so well. We are not worthy!

[@user-ku7dg4wq8g]

Bravo! ✊👍

[@franciscobovallecillo9957]

Que bonito ! me encanta 💖

[@AndrewMoizer]

Based on this I would say that your sailing system has really passed the test. Looks like you had a wonderful trip together too. Looking forward to more trip details. I also hope the recover period wasn’t too long or arduous. Thanks for this.

[@walterfabio6988]

esto es maravilloso

[@cicloperegrinacao-claudiov2368]

Muito bom. Adorei. E os Kaiakes têm um bom rendimento.

[@harveygresham3636]

Production values are outstanding. Thank you. You put in at C Locks. Where did you take out? Two nights is a good shake out. The performance going downwind of your sails is astounding,

[@PepiczekKnedliczek]

very very nice :)

[@user-te1fn2of8g]

Очень очень круто!

[@trochymiak]

Very nice mast with a sail, how is it made? Thx 4 content :)

[@terrysmith4465]

Verlen Kruger perfected that type of kayaking he called it canoeing. He built canoes that would connect together.

[@Campero1115]

Esa es vida

[@nunyabidness3075]

Pack canoe paddlers generally recommend the bent shaft canoe paddles for die hard canoe fans who don’t want a kayak paddle. They supposedly work best for the low seating position. You might try one with you kayak. Boats look good and fun.

[@leemelbourne3297]

Interesting and simple solution. It seems you were mostly sailing downwind though. Getting a kayak rig to tack against the wind is the real challenge.

[@capefalconkayak]

And not a challenge worth pursuing! by the time you do everything you need to do to get a kayak to go upwind all you’re left with is a crappy kayak covered in gadgets that still sails poorly. This rig will run beam to the wind nicely and that’s all I want out of it. The whole point of this rig is that you could be kayaking normally and then in five minutes you can be running downwind or across the wind as a Catamaran.

[@leemelbourne3297]

@@capefalconkayak Yeah, those folding sails seem incredibly quick to deploy, and easy to fold up again. I just built a sailing kayak, but it has certainly come out as more sailboat than kayak. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mp-Tk6R3iq52a6s

[@hntrains2]

How wet are you at the end of the day? Do you have an extra tent layer, for rainy nights?

[@capefalconkayak]

It just depends on the conditions. No more wet than normal kayaking, if sailing in mild conditions, fairly wet in extreme conditions, but that’s the same with normal kayaking as well. We definitely have a rain fly for the tent!

[@hntrains2]

@@capefalconkayak, so, you are out on any weather, like true outdoor people. Kind of what the video has already told me. Have a wonderful new week!

[@wisenber]

The footage looked like you were sailing downwind the whole time. Any luck with sailing to weather? Would using a paddle or an oar as a rudder provide more control than the kayak rudders?

[@capefalconkayak]

While it’s possible to make a kayak sailing rig go upwind, it’s rarely worth it. The sails need to be much larger, perfectly cut, and balanced with very well-made foils. And even after all of that you just have a boat with a ton of complexity and expense and it still doesn’t sail into the wind very well. So the approach I take is making good downwind and crosswind set ups that are simple and don’t interfere with normal kayaking when not in use. It sails across the wind well.

[@wisenber]

@@capefalconkayak I agree that chasing a close haul in a vessel not designed to sail isn't a great solution. I have a Falcon sail I use on a CLC 17 and an Epic 18x that gives me about 120 degrees of no-go. The same sail on a Klepper with a leeboard gets me about 100 degrees of no go. The same Klepper gets the same upwind with a 34 sq balanced lug. The sailing trimaran I built *can* do better, but the speed trade off for those degrees isn't worth it.

[@capefalconkayak]

@@wisenber Falcon Sails are pretty well cut that combined with a good rudder will definitely get you deeper into the wind than my simple flat cut sails which is just designed to be really easy to make. I’m actually surprised that they do as well as they do across the wind. I just made a whole mini course for the website on how to add rudders to skin boats and built my own custom rudder kits for our for our store. I’m working on making the falcon sails compatible with our mast system for people who might want to make their own mast but not necessarily the sail.

[@wisenber]

@@capefalconkayak I'm not sure if it matters or not, but Patrick updated his "halyard" to bypass the downhaul function by attaching directly to the mast from the block on the bow. His downhaul is now a bungee attached to a cleat on the mast. I'd say their mast deployment might be more similar to yours. I agree there's are well shaped, but my balanced lug performs about the same on a Klepper going upwind. I've played with about 4 sailplans on my trimaran ranging from windsurfer sails in a biplane mode to a cat ketch with a pair of balanced lugs. I think my trimaran lets me tweak sailing aspects like your new method of rapid kayak updates. However, my challenge wasn't the same level as yours.

[@wisenber]

@@sneescampers Paddling into a 25+ mph headwind with a 4 mph current isn't going to be very fruitful.

[@alpineflier9961]

Running with the wind only?

[@capefalconkayak]

Works well across the wind also, you can see some footage of that in the seperate trip report video I posted about this trip.

[@davidmeeks2405]

Neat DYI project very creative. Just a shame that you had to try it out at such a dreary location. LOL No really, the scenery was incredible.

[@user-nc4ep9uo5m]

Супер!

[@chris_nalder]

no music :) talk instead. Thanks