Does anyone know where I can find out if this is legal or not?

I searched and found a few threads here, but no definite answers. I need a link to the official rules or something.

a tarp or poncho stretched between two paddles or poles is legal...a mast with rigging is not. id call the SNF.

Here is the only thing I found about sailing in the BWCA rules. rules

"No other motorized or mechanized equipment (including pontoon boats, sailboats, sailboards) is allowed."

The key phrase here is "mechanized equipment", which is why anything with rigging qualifies but holding your poncho up is okay.

Link to official rules

How about useing a patio umbrella?

quote kanoes: "a tarp or poncho stretched between two paddles or poles is legal...a mast with rigging is not. id call the SNF."

What he said... I would take a "wind paddle"... if I had one... as there isn't any real rigging... But mind as well just use a poncho.

As long as the patio umbrella doesn't have one of those hand cranks to open and close it it would be legal.

absurd !
Makes me want to take a motor, just to mess with the rules.

I've been thinking of ways to rig up my tent's floor saver as a makeshift sail--one I could collapse if I started picking up too much speed.

Either that, or bringing up a large kite...

kite are wicked fun, but can also be dangerous as the guy controlling it is useless for anything else, that's my experience anyway

quote tonyyarusso: ""No other motorized or mechanized equipment (including pontoon boats, sailboats, sailboards) is allowed."


The key phrase here is "mechanized equipment", which is why anything with rigging qualifies but holding your poncho up is okay.


Link to official rules "

Andy Hill of Ely, operated a sailboat for people who wanted to fish, or just take a tour of Basswood.
It wasn't a very large boat, but the "loud noise" of the sails flapping obviously irritated some, and it was banned based on mechanical hinges attached to the mast.
Dave Kromer operated a custom made pontoon boat that complied with all the length and width specs for a motorboat, and would take disabled Vets fishing from Veterans on the Lake resort. They then changed the wording to pontoon boat (no matter the size) and added it to the banned craft.
After this long winded bit of history, makeshift sails are allowed, as long as you don't have a complex system to hold them up. A few paddles lashed together with either tape or rope, with poncho or similar item attached as the sail, are legal.

Clearly not very clear regulations. Can two canoes lashed together be a pontoon boat? The portage wheels (which I know would be useless on the majority of portages) on the International Border; well not that Homeland Security has claimed a wide swath as their International Border. So I call USFS and instead of clarity, get answers that seem like yet another interpretation, or that don't agree with last call, and frequently don't seem observed or believed correct at BWCA.COM.

I saw the Windpaddle at canoecopia last year. I am pretty sure this would be bwca-legal. However, I told the company rep, "I would buy one except the wind is NEVER at my back."

TB and I saw this up in the BWCA on our trip to Ogish in 2010. Looked to be a great team building exercise.







P.S. Sorry TB, I stole your picture:)

I think some are reading too deep into this. The rules say no pontoon boats. Two or more canoes temporally lashed together do not make a pontoon boat. The rules also say no sail boats. A tarp or poncho tied to a canoe does not make it a sailboat. I have seen sails with a mast and rigging made for a canoe and think that would be not within the rules. I would also think that that round sail would be ok because it is only tied onto the canoe and does not have any rigging or mast. Just my opinion though.

AndySG: Thanks for that link on the Windpaddle. That is so cool, I really wanted one until I saw the price they want for the larger one for canoes - $219.99 buckaroos! Whoa! Plus, (chuckle) I agree the wind is rarely at our backs! :D

Vickie, Love that photo of TB's! (BTW you're married to him now, so technically it's yours, too!) :D

It looks like four canoes! Personally I wouldn't want to be the ones standing up in the canoe! But great teamwork!

Yes. Simple sails are legal.

Coming out of my fat season. Maybe I will tie the ankles of my pants in a knot and "John Candy- it" accross Russell.
Good info though with the sail. Never thought about it.

This one works for me every time. We use our homemade ripstop rainfly folded in half with the spare paddle tucked in the fold. When there is enough wind it will hold the fly/sail at the top of the "T" just fine. Bottom is held down with feet. If a gust hits it's pretty easy to avoid swimming by letting the slack out (by lifting feet). We covered about 20k in three hours on this particular day!

quote OffTheBeatenPath: "Coming out of my fat season. Maybe I will tie the ankles of my pants in a knot and "John Candy- it" across Russell.
"

Good one.

quote vickieh69: "TB and I saw this up in the BWCA on our trip to Ogish in 2010. Looked to be a great team building exercise.








P.S. Sorry TB, I stole your picture:)"

That looks ultra safe! Think I'll have to give it a try next summer.

Two paddles with a large garbage bag over them stretched apart seemed to pull us along well enough.

I don't see anything in those rules forbidding a sail. The regs specifically forbid sailboats and sailboards. A canoe with a sail is a canoe with a sail, not a sailboat. I also don't see anything banning oars. If you consider oars to be mechanical equipment, I'd think paddles would be too. I'd like to see the definition that distinguishes between those two nearly-identical propulsion systems. These are good examples of the arbitrary, inconsistent, meaningless rules that prevail in this phony wilderness. Tell me, advocates, if the point of the BWCA is to preserve it as it is or was and to maintain an area that is quiet and untrammeled, how do sails and oars spoil anything? If sail rigging or oarlocks are considered mechanical devices, why aren't skis or ski poles? We who have watched the evolution of this preserve from its beginning just shake our heads.

tonyyarusso: ""No other motorized or mechanized equipment (including pontoon boats, sailboats, sailboards) is allowed."
The key phrase here is "mechanized equipment", which is why anything with rigging qualifies but holding your poncho up is okay.
Link to official rules "

Okay, it's now seven years later and Mr. Yarusso's uncle will once again be within striking distance of the BWCA, after an absence of many years. Mr. Yarusso's uncle spent many happy hours touring the BWCA in years past in two canoes lashed together, propelled by a temporary sail "rigged" by Mr. Yarusso's grandfather without benefit of pulleys. (Mr. Yarusso's grandfather also used to sail an open OTCA alone on Gitchee Gumee, to the consternation of Mr. Yarusso's grandmother ...) Comes now this query:

Anybody know anything more current and authoritative than the points already made in this thread?

Nothing has changed. Using machines such as levers or pulleys to propel yourself is still forbidden. An oar is a lever because of the oarlock. A paddle isn’t because you are the pivot.

There was a move to allow the fleet of now abandoned 2013 Americas Cup winged catamarans. But the crew of 11 violated the group size. Larry Ellison appealed and won on the basis that the 72 foot boat was so large that the crew wasn’t gathered together in one place. However the huge cranes needed to remove or reinstall the wing sails at each portage end were ruled to violate the restriction on signs.

Paddle on and have fun with your ponchos and tarps.

I'll bet the Voyagers of old used sails from time to time regardless of rules.

nctry: "I'll bet the Voyagers of old used sails from time to time regardless of rules. "

Yeah:
"The red sun sank into the lake, warning us to seek the shore and camp for the night…A deep, sandy bay, with a high background of woods and rocks, seemed to invite us to its solitude. The boats were moored in a recess of the bank, or drawn bodily up on the beach; sails brought ashore and roofs extemporized as protection against possible storms."

https://www.nps.gov/voya/planyourvisit/voyageurslife.htm

But they also shot each other at portages and they drank "enormous" amounts of tea. I'm disinclined to do either of the latter, except under duress. Like stepping on my paddle. ;-)

What I am still unclear about is the use of a formal sail or rowing on lakes that allow motors. I have often thought of taking my tandem with a rowing rig on Saganaga for a week or so.

sedges: "What I am still unclear about is the use of a formal sail or rowing on lakes that allow motors. I have often thought of taking my tandem with a rowing rig on Saganaga for a week or so.
"

Maybe with a motor permit…? paddle would be paddle only…
Kind of a goofy rule in the first place…

sedges: "What I am still unclear about is the use of a formal sail or rowing on lakes that allow motors. I have often thought of taking my tandem with a rowing rig on Saganaga for a week or so.
"

You can row on motorized lakes.

I'm not sure how useful a sail would be, as my experience has been the BW only has headwinds.