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