Sail for canoe

I'm will soon be canoeing the Moose River to James Bay and I built two small sails to help on the long stretches. The main sail is triangular at 4' high by 4' wide, and a square 4'X4' sail when I need a little more of a push. The mast if 8' tall with a 16'X8' base to relieve pressure off the bottom of the canoe.

My question is where is the best place to put the mast? At the yoke neat the pivot point or closer to the front seat?

Thanks,

On one trip I was on we improvized with a big tarp and paddles. We had around around 3 canoes so we rafted up the canoes together, tied the corners of the tarp to two paddles, and got somebody in the canoes on the ends to hold up the paddles. It was a long time ago but I seem to remember that we fairly pretty fast when there was a good breeze and we were going straight downwind. I think you could do this with a single canoe too, even using a regular tent fly. I don't think there's any point in getting fancy with sails on a regular canoe since it can't go across the wind without a daggerboard. You can use the tarp to keep you dry too so it's worth carrying. Also I've read about people sailing using kites, which I'd like to try.

People at the turn of the century were having the same thoughts that you're having. That evolved into the International Canoe: http://www.intcanoe.org/

Don't really resemble a canoe so much anymore...