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COME SAIL AWAY. PHOTO: ANDREW WESTWOOD


open Canoe Technique THE SECRET TO INCREDIBLY FAST JET FERRIES


I’D RATHER BE SAILING


I’ve long used the jet ferry as a reliable meth- od for crossing wide expanses of current, or reaching mid-river surf waves. But the incred- ible speed and efficiency of this move wasn’t fully revealed to me until last summer. Paul Mason and I were teaching out West on Alberta’s Red Deer River and were impressed with the many spectacular surf waves. Front surfing, back surfing, spinning on waves—on this river you could do it all! Paul commented curiously on the remarkable speed of his jet fer- ries. Could it be that there was something differ- ent about these waves compared to ours back east, or was there something different about Paul? (Some of you may know the answer al- ready if you’ve read his Bubble Street cartoons.) To solve the mystery, I watched Paul and oth- ers tackle some challenging jet ferries. Most kept an active paddle or ruddered throughout their move. But not Paul. He kept his paddle vertical, practically side slipping on a draw.


When I asked him to rudder instead, he claimed the magic was gone and the surf felt slower. It turns out that the secret to Paul’s accelerating jet ferry is to use the paddle blade as a foil to sail across the wave. When he ruddered, the blade no longer had the foil effect, making the move feel sluggish in comparison. To understand how this works, imagine a min-


iature sailboat upside down on a jet ferry wave. The inverted boat would have its sail catch- ing the current instead of the wind. A paddle blade acts in much the same way. Just as with a sail, a paddle catches the rushing current and redirects it behind you toward the stern of the canoe. With the water deflected to the stern, the paddle is propelled forward increasing the speed of a jet ferry—just like a sailboat tacking across the water on a windy day. Similar, too, is how the hull of a sailboat or ca- noe tracks the boat to prevent sideways move- ment. A sailboat needs a keel to grip the water


so that the force of the wind will move the boat forward. A canoe uses its chine in the same way. The edge of the canoe carves aggressively into the wave face—that plus gravity pulling the canoe down the wave keeps the canoe on a for- ward path so it doesn’t slide downstream and off the wave. To gain the most momentum from the paddle sail, angle the blade so that the leading edge points slightly in the direction of the ferry. Simi- larly, point the canoe across the wave but with just enough upstream angle to cause it to surf down the wave face. For sailing, the best jet ferry waves are ones positioned perpendicular to the flow of the current. Mystery solved. As it turns out, Paul is differ- ent, at least in how he jet ferries. Andrew Westwood is an open canoe instruc- tor at the Madawaska Kanu Centre, member of Team Esquif and author of The Essential Guide to Canoeing. www.westwoodoutdoors.ca.


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