A fascinating article is copied here from Bill Beaver originally published in the North American newsletter. The hullform development gives some interesting analysis of various hull shapes developed over the years. Prior to the 1970 meeting of the ICF Sailing committee, the International Canoe Class allowed hullform development. In the preceeding hundred years, from the sailing canoe ‘ s inception in the 1870’ s, the flexibili ty in the canoe rules transformed the boat from sedate ketch rigged open paddling boats, to the challenging sloop rigged decked canoes we sai l today. High watermarks along the way, in US Canoe sa iling, were the adoption of the sliding seat (Paul Butler 1886), the sloop rig (Uffa Fox 1935) , and the fully battened mainsail (1947) . The era of the modem International Canoe really began in 1936 with Uffa Fox and his boat “Wake”. In this article , I ‘ n1 attempting to trace hullfonn development in the modern Canoe era, to see where we’ve come, what we’ ve learned, and what direction this may point us in the future.
