Mill Creek 16.5

Builder's Forum
1

Hello everyone;

I have build a hybrid Mill Creek 16.5 a few years ago and I’m very happy with its performance and versatility from open waters including  8nm round trip to Alligator Reef light house and shelter waters in Biscayne Bay and the Florida Everglades,  can’t complain it’s a well designed kayak/canoe. However, I’m ready to do some upgrades to it and one of them is a sail.

The stock sail offered for the Mill Creek is a tanbark/Egyptian style sail at 39sq feet with no additional outriggers/ammas required. The Kayak/Canoe sail rig offers sails from 40 to 70 sq/ft with outriggers/ammas required due to the bigger size sails 55 to 70 sq/ft. I find the sails from the kayak/canoe sail rig more appealing to me than the stock sail offered for the Mill Creek although it does give it a more traditional look. Being a newbie at sailing, my question to anyone in CLC is can I use the 40 sq/ft sail from the kayak/canoe sail rig without the need of the outriggers since its only 1 sq/ft bigger than the Mill Creek stock sail?

Thank you for your time

Aurelio

2

Yes, the CLC SailRig's 40-square-foot sail should be okay with a Mill Creek 16.5 and no outriggers.  Here's a photo of me sailing a Mill Creek 16.5 with such a sail.  

My recollection is that the boat was stiff enough to sail well with the taller rig, but you'd have to be more careful in gusty conditions than you would with the lower-aspect lug sail.  

19 years ago! I think we had a website by then, but our chief house organ was that print newsletter. It stayed in print until 2006.
 

3

   Great!!! Thanks John for your quick response.

Aurelio