Stand Up Paddlefish

signal charlie

Well-Known Member
Staff member
We noticed the Super Sailfish MKII was SUP size and wondered, could you paddle it? I paddled it around and it was very stable, I could even move around a bit. It tracked great and turned well. Then the spousal unit, who is a wee thing, took it out with the full rig on it, paddled around, raised the sail, dropped the daggerboard. I helped her put down the rudder, which is the biggest challenge with the old style rudder. Then she sailed around, capsized, righted, sailed back and lowered the rig. Even unstepped the mast. It was a blast!
So now we want to sell it on Craigslist as a SUP/sailing kayak/sailboat :)
 

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Very nice! I've sailed my Sunfish standing up, but never tried bringing along a long enough paddle to "SUP" it around.
standupsailing.jpg
We tried out a SUP paddle and kayak paddle on a bare Sunfish hull and it worked great. I stood just in front of the cockpit and in the cockpit.
 
Yeah, I carry a very small collapsible paddle, so it wouldn't work as well. Great idea, though!
 
How does this sailing standing up work? What happens when you tack? I can barely get under the boom sitting down!
 
If you're paddling there's a good chance that there is no wind. We are currently playing around with a Greenland paddle, meant for kayaks, to see how we like it on the SUP. The Greenland paddle has a nice long foil like a glider wing, high aspect ratio, high span with relationship to mean chord, which means a lot of lift and minimum drag. Good for gliding but not for power, just pick up the stroke count a bit. Way less stress on the upper body. A Euro kayak paddle acts more like a shovel, you can move a lot of water.

Plus there is some more testing going on in the Sunfish Skunkworks, details to follow.

Cheers
Kent and Crash Test Dummy Skipper
 

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