Considering the grammatical ambiguity in Genesis 9:24, was the sin against Noah committed by Ham or Canaan?

I understand that many scholars believe that Canaan (son of Ham) was the guilty party. But wouldn't the author have been very conscious of the ambiguity of the key masculine pronoun?.....and wouldn't the author thereby have made an effort to clarify and explicitly name Canaan as the one who sinned against Noah?