Alan here from Team “Rise and Fall of Western Civilization” (Team RAF for short) with an update on the teams progress of late. We are in the final stages of completion of our Wa’apa sailing canoes that we will be using in the Watertribe Everglades Challenge and if all goes to plan we will be sailing this weekend on Jordan Lake. We are documenting all of our progress on our blog that is updated daily at sailnaway.blogspot.com. We are a 4 man team of college students from NC State and have begged and borrowed our way this far on a college budget. It can be done!!! With just days until the start of the race we will be kicking into high gear to prepare the boats and ourselves.The Everglades Challenge is a 300 mile unsupported small boat endurance race from Tampa Bay to Key Largo Florida hosted by the watertribe. The course is very challenging and requires boats to navigate under low bridges and into and out of extremely shallow inlets and flats. Any small boat is welcome and is placed into a class 1 through 4 depending on its method of propulsion and design. Larger sail powered boats in class4 while small single person kayaks are in class 1. The race really encourages new designs and promises to be a most exiting adventure.
Last weekend we were able to do some stability testing on Lake Wheeler and try out out different hull configurations. Since then we have almost completed the sails, masts, booms, rudders and leeboards and we cannot wait to do some sailing.
A big thanks to Great Outdoor Provision Co. for their support and help in obtaining gear and knowledge to help us get where we are now. Keep a lookout for us in the Raleigh shop as we are sure to be there in the next week stocking up.
