(click on images to enlarge)I finally launched my first proa at the south end of Cannon Lake.
GLORY TIMES!
The two wheeled dolly, shown above, worked perfectly, even through soft beach sand. The wae ends fit into forks in the top of the dolly cradle.
I used the same bungees to lash him together that I used to secure him on my roof rack, seen in the background. (Proas are male)
The bungee cord lashings are FAST, EASY, SECURE and CONVENIENT.
Everything worked according to my clear and definite vision. Cheers to Napoleon Hill!
The water was crystal clear and cold. There was no one else on the lake. Storm clouds were blowing in from the North. It was near freezing, and getting dark.
I elected not to perform a capsize drill.
He was a beautiful sight to behold .
He tracked nicely, owing to his deep vee hull, and was very stable.
The wedge shaped wae extensions worked beautifully, providing eye screw anchors for the bungee lashings, and elevating the akas above the water line.
LOOK AT HIM!
He goes fast with very little drag or resistance.
I can sit anywhere along the outrigger bench without submerging the bows, yet I can see how I can steer him by shifting my weight fore and aft.
I can lie down comfortably on the waka, between the akas.
The fore and aft outrigger spars interfered with paddling, but I can leave them off or move them out of the way.
The the ama lashing system developed by Gary Dierking worked BRILLIANTLY with the mooring cleats I mounted on the akas, shown above. In this case, I used 3/16 inch polyester cord, not bungees.
I was able to sail along at a fair clip with just the wind resistance of my body.
I could used multiple corners on the outrigger grid for fulcrums, for sculling along with my double bladed paddle.
HE IS GOING TO BE FAST WITH A WING SAIL OR TWO.
and now some preview images of my waka building saga . . .
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5 comments:
Cool Doug. It looks great! You did a great job.
Hi,
do you think it's possible to use two amas (outrigger floats) to build a catamaran (at least a single person cat)?
Of course, I would make it bigger (thiker), but the question is if the connection between the float and the beam won't collapse.
From yours experience, do you consider it to be strong enough to stand eg 100kg?
Do you still have him?
If so, how did the sail part work out?
You seem to be on the track of my own Holy Grail: something that has a little glide when paddled, can be sailed, and doesn't weigh too much.
Pete Cresswell
Confirm@FatBelly.com
Do you still have him?
If so, how did the sail work out?
You seem to be on the trail of my own Holy Grail: Something that paddles with some glide.
He's on top of my Subaru Forester right now.
He glides and tracks easily when paddled, at least with the small, light ama shown on the 13 Oct 2013 post. But he needs some course correction because he veers very slightly to the ama side.
A sea kayak size rudder would work perfectly.
He weighs about 60 lbs or so but could be made much lighter with 3mm or 0.125" plywood instead of 0.25", and with fewer internal frames, and perhaps with lighter fiberglass epoxy.
Basically, he's a prototype designed for engineering overkill.
I once ran him up at speed under sail onto some fairly sharp basalt rocks on the shore of Lake Byllesby. No harm done beyond a few scrapes.
I have only tried a small poly tarp sprit sail so far:
Very fast acceleration!
The Vee hull design was inspired by Chris Hughes' Kia Kia -- Flying Proa:
http://www.ayrs.org/KiaKia.pdf
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