Me paddling Sulu Sea on Kelly Dudley Lakes in SE Minnesota

Paddling "Sulu Sea" on Kelly Dudley Lakes in SE Minnesota

Future videos will feature a wider angle of view than I was able to achieve with my Flip Video Ultra HD mounted on the forward ama post.

But the video shows that you can indeed use a double paddle and sit on a comfortable beach chair to enjoy the great, aquatic outdoors, on a car topper outrigger canoe.

The minimum clearance you need to comfortably us a double paddle:
fore and aft -- six and a half feet between the waka from the centerline outward -- four feet


Notes: 

• It took about an hour to upload this video to blogger.com and YouTube, simultaneously, over the cafe's wifi.
• It took a similarly long time for Windows Live Movie Maker to load the 34 minute original HD MP4 file for editing.
• I still don't know anything about the best file format for uploading videos --- an excellent research topic.
• In future I will shoot shorter video clips and upload shorter video segments, until I can upgrade my computer, wifi speed, or both.-

Photo from yesterday's launch on Lake Byllesby (13 October 2013)

Boiling Hot Minnesota Doldrums

 10 October 2013

Okay, so these pictures are from a whole year and a half ago.

I guess building a proa puts your whole life and your own mortality right out there in plain view.

At least when it takes you as long as it takes me to build a proa.

Meanwhile I have launched another neglected blog using my very own domain name:

http://douglasweir.com/blog/



On with the show...


Here are some contraptions I tried out last year:

1. Double axis rudder contraption
2. PVC pipe jam cleat contraption
3. deck box with seat back contraption
4.  foot pedal steering linkage contraption

Here's another view of the four fold contraptions in all their glory:

Oh, and a fifth contraption --- a little mounting bracket for my Flip Ultra HD video cam:

And another shot of the benefits of bungee cords for proa sailors who don't ride bicycles:

And Gary Dierking's most excellent ama post rigging system. 

Note:  I actually use a galvanized mooring cleat mounted on the aka.  A paddle can be neatly stowed under those polyester lines.  Polyester (synthetic silk) because it does not stretch when wet.

A detailed view of the dual axis rudder contraption:

And of the multi jam cleat board (inspiration credits to Wade Tarzia):

Hope  this belated post cheers you up.

Let me know if you want to see the video clips...

Another Cool Production Proa

Yet Another Production Proa...

I just discovered the "Eskimo 19 CRX 4G Harpoon R" on the Easy Rider site. I had been investigating the properties of ABS plastic for some fixturing at work-- Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene -- when I stumbled upon the laminated ABS material, Royalex, which Easy Rider uses for many of their kayaks and canoes.

Coincidentally, I had just recently been wondering why outrigger canoes seem to be mostly confined to the tropics, Madagascar through Hawaii, and why the heck the Inuit boatmen would want to perform Eskimo rolls.

Anyway, the Harpoon looks like a winner, but I think they should shorten the name.

You can row or skull...

You can sail it like a proa, here with a junk rig...

Or propel it with a double bladed paddle, which is what I do on my proa.

More boat building pictures and a sailing video

Here's the stitching along the keel of my plywood,vee-hull ama (that doubles as a small, car-topable waka):

• I used galvanized steel wire, which is far stronger and cheaper than copper, but needs to be extracted with a) heat from a blow torch and b) a firm grip with linesman pliers, after the epoxy has cured for a day
  
• I pre-coated the panels with marine epoxy before stitching them together
• Only the keel is stitched: I bonded the deck panels to inner sheer clamps (inwales) using bronze ring nails and thickened epoxy

An interior view, showing the thickened epoxy fillet along the keel, re-enforced with fiberglass tape:

You can also see one of the mast step sockets bonded to a bulkhead. The mast step socket doubles as a socket for an aka post, if using the hull as an ama.



Another view of the mast step / aka post socket (unfinished)

As you can see, it's a fairly robust structure. What you can't see is its twin socket at the other end of the hull.

And here, liberal application of fairing compound (epoxy + silica microspheres):


More videos to come: The one below is my first attempt to capture the proa in motion. He's on Sturgeon Lake, next to MacCarthy Beach State Park, in Northern Minnesota:
47.674363 N,-93.02958E

Holy Moly!

A whole year went by and no posts!

Well, I launched my little outrigger canoe several times over the summer on Lake Byllesby in SE Minnesota.

I rigged him with a make shift poly tarp sail and used a paddle for a rudder.



He went fast indeed !

I got compliments galore to stoke my ego!

He fit neatly on my home built roof rack for my Subaru Forester (Sadly, my Mercury Sable station wagon threw a piston rod and had to be junked).