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Canoes are my next choice to build. I will always remember the camp canoes we used up on the lakes in Minnesota.
They were designed similar to the northern Algonquin, Ojibways or Chippewas birch bark boats. It had very tall curving prows. Very elegant.
The way to make a flatbottom boat into a sailboat is a modest sized sail rig and a leeboard on a rail. Look up some of the sailing rigs on old sailing canoes or class sailboats such as a "naples sabot" to see how these were rigged up. You'll also see leeboards on boats designed for sailing in "thin waters" where they have a lot of advantages over centerboards and daggerboards. Phil Bolger designed a number of inexpensive boats for this type of use to be home built. Ted Geary designed a modest 18' flatbottom sailboat for sailing in shallow bay areas, the "Geary 18" ... used to be a sizable racing fleet of these mostly home-built craft out on the West Coast. Flat bottom sailboats abound ... while a "jon boat" might not be an ideal platform, it could be sailed with the right equipment (leeboard and rudder) and shouldn't be especially tender to sail, although the hull shape would probably not support much sail rig and the performance might be very marginal upwind ... but I'll bet that it could do OK in flat water and off the wind sailing angles. You'd be surprised at how balanced a sail rig can be in modest conditions where a jon boat would be an appropriate boat for thin water and breezes.
Yes, I've built a number of dinghy's in the 8' through 19' range ... and spent a lot of hours assisting in the construction of wood sailboats up through 38'. Also helped build a number of kit kayaks and canoes, which is a good way to start on wood boat construction. A great resource is to get back issues of "Wooden Boat" magazine. Lots of tips on tools, techniques, actual projects, articles on designers and various boats evaluated, and advertisers with kits and plans.
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