My dad has a lot of great tools. And a lot of great know-how. If a trip ever takes me to my folks' place, you can bet I get a lot done on any one of my ongoing projects. And a lot did get done this weekend: daggerboards have been cut and have started taking shape.

It may be time to take a moment and discuss these, the first parts of my sailing canoe. Daggerboards are keels- the middle part of the boat that hangs down vertically into the water. They help a boat from tipping over, and are crucial in sailing ships to keep them going forward while travelling in any direction that's not directly away from the wind. Most people who haven't sailed wonder how a boat can go anywhere but where the wind is blowing. There's plenty of good information out on the internet, but I'll try to briefly explain the function of the keel. Imagine you are in a boat at the center of a clock, and the wind is blowing at you from 12 o'clock. Your sailboat can actually go in any direction from around 1:30 to around 10:30, thanks in large part to the keel (your sail is, of course, playing a huge role, but I won't talk about this now). If you are in a boat without a keel and you are going, let's say, towards 9 o'clock, then the wind will simply push you side-ways (towards the 6). The keel is like a vertical wing that keeps you slipping through the water 90 degrees from the wind. Take a small boogie board into a pool and test it. If you put it under water and try to "flap" it, it will tend to "slice" through the water perpendicular to the force you apply on it (it will try to "slip" to the side). Same with the keel.

Small boats with a "shoal draft" (boats that don't stick into the water very deep, and can get into shallow water) have ways to make sure the keel doesn't run aground. Nicer boats have a "swing keel" that can be retracted under the boat. Smaller boats have a "centerboard" keel, or one that can be simply pulled up through a well in the middle of the boat. These are sometimes called "daggerboards".

To make sure I have enough keel surface to allow me to maneuver my boat (enough to keep it from blowing side-ways), but keep the daggerboards short so I can get into most of the usual "canoe spots" (shallow water), I am using 2- one daggerboard that hangs on each side of the boat exactly half way between bow and stern (front and back). They will also be able to retract (swing up).

I don't have any pictures of them, and they wouldn't be much to look at in their present state, so here's a picture of one of my hop vines instead- 2 inches tall already! (It looked like a 5 inch long stick, planted horizontally 1" under the soil surface, just 1 week ago!)