Question Down the Mississippi in rat rod canoe sailboat

[DertyDers]

So I’ve been drawing up the plan for years now and this summer I’m going to achieve the goal of making it down the Mississippi River in canoes. The plan has evolved and my girlfriend Destinee and I are gonna try something a little crazy. We want to convert back and forth between two canoes and a catamaran sailboat/raft. I’m following a few pages on Facebook. I have all the maps online. I even reached out to Minnesota dnr. I realize the dangers of locks, dams, barge traffic and water. We have enough experience to do this.

Has anyone ever paddled the whole thing? Anyone do anything like a raft? Looking for tips and advice

We’re calling ourselves the Rat Cat Crew. The trip will take about 3 months. We leave the headwaters at Lake Itasca State Park on Memorial Day, May 31st... if anyone is feeling crazy (Derek what you up to this summer?) come join us for any part of the trip 🤙

 

[Matt Derrick]

nice! i'd love to see updates as you go along. make sure to have a look at our sailing wiki page here:

https://squattheplanet.com/wiki/sailing/

also, you might take some inspiration from the miss rockaway armada. there have been many anecdotal reports of punks on barges floating the mississippi, and i've seen a few picks, but not any thourogh documentation of doing so, so you might have a big opportunity here to help others by doing so with your project.

 

[DertyDers]

nice! i'd love to see updates as you go along. make sure to have a look at our sailing wiki page here:

https://squattheplanet.com/wiki/sailing/

also, you might take some inspiration from the miss rockaway armada. there have been many anecdotal reports of punks on barges floating the mississippi, and i've seen a few picks, but not any thourogh documentation of doing so, so you might have a big opportunity here to help others by doing so with your project.

Yeah I’m really looking forward to this. It’s punk but we’re mostly following the rules. If we need to we can break down into “normal” canoes. I would definitely love to meet people who are traveling on barges or something. I’m sure we’ll end up meeting cool people 🤙

 

[DertyDers]

If you’re on Facebook... Mississippi River Paddlers has been a great resource so far

 

[thejword]

got any room left for a guy and a dog? my summer work trade fell through, and i'm looking for something to do. experienced paddler.

 

[DertyDers]

got any room left for a guy and a dog? my summer work trade fell through, and i'm looking for something to do. experienced paddler.

Hey what’s up man?

 

[DertyDers]

We sailed about 2 miles with our rig. Wind at our back and following 1 foot waves building up as we went. I’ll have better video than these pictures later. We used paracord instead of ratchet straps. We also sailed our individual canoes with the same sails, one folding chair and a hula hoop with a poncho stretched around it. More pictures are coming but I thought I’d give an update.

Catamaran canoe sailboat works downwind with small sails on either side. It was a little shifty and we lost some energy into all the rigging, the design needs to be more rigid. Individual canoes work downwind with small sails as well. We put in a few miles going with the wind. Still a lot of paddling but with the wind at our backs we noticeably picked up speed. Worth a try. We’re still working out the design of the canoe cat but already I prefer single canoe for small sails. More to come. Stay beautiful guys

 

[David Jones]

Dana starkell wrote some called paddle to the amazon. Winnepeg to Mississippi and down and down. Good read just mind his mammothsize ego...

 

[spoons]

so sweet to see this setup--friend and i are tossing around ideas of catamaran design v single canoes as well, its nice to read what yer experience has been