Paddling Amas

The first time that you have to paddle your sailing canoe can be annoying because the large buoyant ama will sometimes seem to take over the steering unless you are well practised in anticipating it.
The optimum ama shape for paddling and sailing is very different.  The photo above shows a 45' Hawaiian racing canoe rigged for paddling only.  I've drawn in a dotted line along the waterline to show how very little of the ama is actually touching the water when in use. (Click the photo to enlarge)  The ama is also quite short in comparison to the length of the main hull.
An ama like this would not be a good performer under sail not only because of its lack of buoyancy but also how the entry is shaped when it is pushed down by a press of sail.

The above drawing shows the ama and main hull of the Va'a Motu.  The ama is stretched right up to the main hull bow to give the needed buoyancy to prevent a diagonal capsize.  The entry also has very little rocker to make it pierce waves rather than pitch over them.  Constant changes in pitch or "hobby-horsing" plays havoc with the flow over the sail and makes you go slower.

Ama Switch

 

Dennis Bullen on the Manukau Harbor in New Zealand recently built a new ama for his stretched Ulua to the design I'm using on the Va'a Motu.  It has a high volume, a low wave piercing bow and plenty of rocker aft.  It should throw less spray that the banana shaped amas.

The Last Sailing Canoe of Mokil

Mokil is a Micronesian island near Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia.  If you've got a big old tree in your backyard that you'd like to get rid of, this video will show you how to put it to good use.
I built a 30' power catamaran on Pohnpei back in the 70's and what I think of while I watched this video was the heat and humidity.  I also remember that with enough Micronesians, you can carry a 30' cat hull down a very steep slippery jungle trail to the water.

Canoe Surfing Hawaiian Style

Follow this Link for some great video and tips.

Drawings to Drool over

299 drawings by Aldo Cherini of canoes and ships of Indonesia. 

 

 

Wa'apas in Brazil

Felipe Monsanto's Wa'apa sailing in Rio.

Felipe used a Hobie hull for the ama.

Lashed seats.

João Rivera's Wa'apa.

João's building blog is here.

We Want Wave Clearance Clarence

This Hawaiian 45' racer built by Bill Rosehill in Hawaii illustrates a good way to get those crossbeams raised above the top of the waves.  This arrangement is commonly seen in Tahiti but not much in Hawaii except for the canoes converted to sailing.  Note the shimming to tune the ama height.
This 175 lb cedar strip/fiberglass hull would be hard to improve on even with a big pile of carbon and honeycomb.  Strip composite can result in a lighter hull than most plywood designs provided that your techniques are good.  As Burt Rutan used to say:  "That excess resin that you squeegeed on to the floor will do a lot more good there than on your airplane."

Reef that Crab

 

Reto Brehm's P5 proa "Lili'Uokalani" with a shunting Oceanic lateen rig. 

 

 

 

There has never been a completely satisfying way to reef a crab claw sail.  If you just furl up some of the area along the boom, you still end up with the sail at full hoist, not the best place for the area when the wind is strong.  Reto rigged a ring or loop of beads that slides down over the halyard to lower the yard and yet keep it tight against the mast.  The control line is led out to the main shroud to give a new support point to the mast and prevent any excessive bending.

 

Ulua in Brazil

 

Remo Eckert from Peruyibe, Brazil has done a superb job on his Ulua project.  The iakos and ama are slightly different from the design plan but are very similar to Hawaiian designs in use today.

A clear finished stripper hull can be stunning, but I've always felt that having some painted sections make the varnished parts stand out even more.  Remo got the balance just right.

Recycled Rigs

One of the best ways to get a high performance rig at minimal cost is to buy an old racing dinghy that may be rotting away but still has several thousand dollars worth of stainless steel hardware, aluminium spars and a set of sails.  I got lucky and found the rig from a NZ/Aus  Javelin racing dinghy for $150.  The Javelin is a 14' development class, designed by John Spencer, that's been around since 1961.  It can do 25 knots with it's big gennaker.  I only got a main and jib, along with a 24' aluminium tapered mast, boom and a big bucket full of hardware.

 

 Racers don't usually have any way to reef, so the first job was to modify the sail for two big slab reefs.  The sail also had a boltrope along the luff that fed into a slot on the mast.  It's much easier to raise and lower the sail if it has slug slides that fit into the slot, so I put in grommets and slides.

 

After hoisting the sail for the first time, I was very pleased with the foil shape.  My sail is a little older than the one in the first photo and has less of a square head than the newer ones.

 

Now I have to see if I can keep it right-side up!

Va'a iti

Some very elegant and seaworthy looking canoes (va'a) being built in Tahiti.

More on the Facebook page.

 

Very Cool Proa Fleet

It appears that the Proa capitol of the world may have shifted from Micronesia to...Poland.

Ulua offshore in Western Australia

Jeremy Eagleton recently took his stretch Ulua on a 20 kilometre offshore passage to Rottnest Island in Western Australia.

Buy This Book!

Few people are more qualified to write this book than Russell Brown.  If you want your epoxy glue joints, fillets, and sheathing to reach a professional level, these tips will help to get you there.  This E-book is a bargain at $5.99 and you can order it here:  http://ptwatercraft.com/ptwatercraft/E-Books.html

Jake in a Boat

Jakob Burbach has a very detailed blog of his Wa'apa building project.  Visit it here:

http://jakeinaboat.blogspot.com/

Ulua getting Slammed

From Dennis Bullen on the Manukau Harbor in New Zealand:
"Found some photographs hiding in the waterproof camera. Here we are (the Cabin Boy and Der Kapitian) beating our way up the Manukau Harbour, its windy rough and a bit wild. After a while we saw three big ones with nasty white caps heading our way.These shots show the waka sliding down the back of the first wave, the second wave hitting. We had plenty of good wind and speed up, the wave crashed over, the ama just disappeared then the canoe; we flew out and slammed down then slipped over the next one and sailed on. The perfect day."