The outrigger and proa thread

[wtarzia]

That's one of those Harry Proas, isn't it? I've heard good things, and the principal is similar to what I'm aiming for in my little Wa'apa... but really, at that point, on something that large and built for cruising, I think I might go with a catamaran, I'm just not sure how well the theory of proas/outriggers holds up when scaled up...

---No, that is a classic Russ Brown proa I believe: offset center mainmast, comfy bench seating on akas, lee-pod, and (not visible) and jibs on each end, deployed at the "new bow" after a shunt.

A harryproa would have the rig in the lee-hull and the windward hull (what would be the ama on a traditional proa) swollen to include all accomodations. This puts maximum weight to windward all the time, which is good for cruising. The harryproa would never have problems coming about, and the overall windage might well be less with accomodation in the deep ww hull and no clunky bridge-deck windage or bridge deck stuff that might intercept a wave from under or over. The lee hull would be just for carrying rig and cutting through water, the ww hull occasionally lifted a bit under press of sail thus some reduced drag (at times) ---- and so I am saying a harryproa vs. a catamaran might need a reasonably complex comparison-anaysis.

Contact Rob Denney for his views of this -- he is a nice guy and knowledgeable -- or join the Yahoo Harryproa group. The Yahoo Proafile International group discusses harryproas sometimes but usually with a little warmth from a definite minority of the membership. --Wade

[wtarzia]

I've been looking at this little guy for the last couple years:



I think It would be good for sailing around the lakes here, an I like some of the features for quick assembly and such.

--- That is a good little boat, and you can believe his performance information on his website because I have duplicated it with my outrigger often (except for the 14 knots part, which I have hit only once and briefly) which has approximately same dimensions but is much heavier than Flaquita. (And his rudder geometry is less dragy than mine too, with his vertical transom). His overall beam is wider than mine (his ~8 feet and some inches beam, mine is a few inches under 7 feet to get through my garage), and perhaps his vaka is a few inches narrower. I do believe his ama has a better geometry too, with a little more volume in the ends than mine, though it is still a deep-V hull). Anyway, Flaquita gets my vote for a very useful design, could keep you going for years.

What I do NOT like about that boat stems from my personal preference for having a deep foot well so that I can stand up in safely to stretch or and leap about in panic to avoid a capsize, or sit down comfortably as on a kitchen chair when ama is to lee -- a few hours on a small rocking, pitching proa, and you begin to appreciate that even if your hips and knees are better than mine. As a trade-off, his vaka cockpit is self-draining through the centerboard slot (yes, you must watch that board in shallows: I would never give up my leeboard for that reason). -- Wade

[Dusty Yevsky]

Guys, I am going to make a set of gently curving akas to drop my two amas 5 inches -- what kind if springback, if any at all, should I expect? I will be epoxying four ~ 5/8 thick, 10 foot DF planks into an approximate 2.5 x 2.5" square section.--Wade

Cut those 5/8" section in half! It's anyone's guess what the springback would be. If you use 1/4" stock your aka come off almost the exact shape of your form, especially with gentle curves. Put your boat and ama in the water, take some measures and build your form accordingly. No suprises.

DF is going to be very heavy in those dimensions. You could probably take an inch out of the width and still be strong enough. DF is plenty stiff.

[wtarzia]

Yeah, making curved akas from readily avaliable wood is not looking good. I might be back to lowering the amas on an open frame or well-faired spacer blocks. --Wade

[peterchech]

Im gonna do a hollow box ama, to save money more than anything, but also to save weight. With my 14" tall ama next to my 19" tall hull, one question though... should the ama waterline be about even with the vaka waterline? Or a little higher, or lower? Should i measure the vaka waterline unloaded or loaded?

Also, how much curve can i build into a box ama, if any?

[Gary Dierking]

Yeah, making curved akas from readily avaliable wood is not looking good. I might be back to lowering the amas on an open frame or well-faired spacer blocks. --Wade

I just posted some photos of the hollow crossbeams that I use for my Wa'apa. Your fir may be stiffer than the Kauri I used but you could have them planed down to 1/2". You've probably saved those long triangular and useless scraps of ply from hull building and they can be used for the side panels.

[Gary Dierking]

Photos of hollow beam construction: http://outriggersailingcanoes.blogspot.com/

[Woxbox]

hat's one of those Harry Proas, isn't it?

No, I don't beleive it is. The Harry Proas are unique in that the accommodations are in the windward hull. That boat pictured looks a lot like a Russell Brown design, Jzerro, but I don't know for fact which boat it is.

The CLC boat is a bigger development of the Mbuli.

[boat fan]

The boat pictured is indeed Mbuli.

http://wikiproa.pbworks.com/f/125668...gton%20034.jpg



This one was built in New Zealand.


http://wikiproa.pbworks.com/Squid

[boat fan]

Apologies for deletions , I could not get the links to work......

Just Google ....Salamba Proa it`s a smaller version of Mbuli , at 18 ft.

[boat fan]

Photos of hollow beam construction: http://outriggersailingcanoes.blogspot.com/

Good description of beam construction Gary , thank you.

[JimD]

[peterchech]

Gary thanks for the link! Very helpful...

If i may ask, is that gorrilla glue (or some polyurethane equivalent) you used on the beams? I noticed the foam out... polyurethane glues have gotten some bad reviews lately, for being carcinogenic but also forbeing significantly weaker than most other glues. Although the" glue wars" continue on many threads in this forum, i would be interested to hear your take!

[Gary Dierking]

Gary thanks for the link! Very helpful...

If i may ask, is that gorrilla glue (or some polyurethane equivalent) you used on the beams? I noticed the foam out... polyurethane glues have gotten some bad reviews lately, for being carcinogenic but also forbeing significantly weaker than most other glues. Although the" glue wars" continue on many threads in this forum, i would be interested to hear your take!

It is polyurethane glue. So far I have had no failures, but have been sure to dampen the surfaces before applying it. The small bronze nails in the beams are also a backup. Epoxy is still the one I would trust the most.

[peterchech]

[QUOTE=peterchech;2811761]Im gonna do a hollow box ama, to save money more than anything, but also to save weight. With my 14" tall ama next to my 19" tall hull, one question though... should the ama waterline be about even with the vaka waterline? Or a little higher, or lower? Should i measure the vaka waterline unloaded or loaded?QUOTE]

The question stands, but one more too... on p 129 of gary's book is an excellent idea for building a clamp-on leeboard for the ulua, which has inwhales, so that the leeboard can be moved back and forth to precisely the right location. Does anyone have any idea for doing this on the wa'apa, which has only external gunwhales? A similar clamping system maybe, but on the gunwhales? how would it be secured strongly?

[wtarzia]

OK, final decision: I am making curved hollow box-beam akas as Gary has shown on his outrigger blog, with a direct connection to the inflatable amas. I will pay some attention to fairing (with glassed-over Dow foam I think) the akas into the amas to reduce the drag. (On my one short test, the fore-akas did not interfere with the water at all -- where the amas have greatest displacement -- though the water was flat).

On leeboards -- I have had the worst luck with the forces on my leeboard -- unless it is my imagination, they seem higher than on similarly sized outriggers. Maybe I am over-sheeting, thus producing greater than necessary leeway-forces on the rig, though the sail tell-tales on both sides did not say so, and speed has been good. In any event, my 4 foot leeboard (two feet under the hull) held by two 1-inch square aluminum rails 12 inches apart and 40 inches long, were permanently bent this summer on one brisk ride. Everybody else seems to live quite well with pretty small leeboard bearings that would have splintered to destruction on my boat with the levering forces, I assume. And I am even planning on a longer leeboard to better match my sail area (2 square feet of board in water for 90-110 square feet of rig is a little low). What have I done wrong? -- Wade

[Gary Dierking]

On leeboards -- I have had the worst luck with the forces on my leeboard -- unless it is my imagination, they seem higher than on similarly sized outriggers. Maybe I am over-sheeting, thus producing greater than necessary leeway-forces on the rig, though the sail tell-tales on both sides did not say so, and speed has been good. In any event, my 4 foot leeboard (two feet under the hull) held by two 1-inch square aluminum rails 12 inches apart and 40 inches long, were permanently bent this summer on one brisk ride. Everybody else seems to live quite well with pretty small leeboard bearings that would have splintered to destruction on my boat with the levering forces, I assume. And I am even planning on a longer leeboard to better match my sail area (2 square feet of board in water for 90-110 square feet of rig is a little low). What have I done wrong? -- Wade

I would replace the square tube with a T6 grade unless that is what you already have. It is much stiffer and as strong as mild steel.
Gary

[wtarzia]

I would replace the square tube with a T6 grade unless that is what you already have. It is much stiffer and as strong as mild steel.
Gary

--- That's the marine-quality stuff, as for spars? I wonder if if I can find T6 square tubbing at Dwyer Mast? I'll go check right now. Thanks. -- Wade

[wtarzia]

...With my 14" tall ama next to my 19" tall hull, one question though... should the ama waterline be about even with the vaka waterline? Or a little higher, or lower? Should i measure the vaka waterline unloaded or loaded? ...

--- How will you typically use the boat? 50/50? Solo? Two crew? Weekending with a camping load? If, say, you were mostly going to day sail with just yourself, some water, safety gear, and a sandwhich, then the boat should float fairly level in a calm, fully rigged, and with you inside. If it is off a little, not a problem if it is mostly for sailing. If you were at least going 50/50 sailing paddling, the many hours of paddling you would see might make it better to have the hull float pretty level to remove one of the removable irritants. On the other hand, it is possible to make adjustable-height amas, if the effort seems worth it (sometimes adding spacer blocks under the akas can be a quick fix).

I adjusted height by lashing the akas a little lower on my ama struts when the ama floated an inch and a half igher than planned -- just enough to make worth it re-doing the strut attachment point by the addition of eyebolts lower down and slightly altered lashing scheme. My boat is now pretty level, maybe just a tad off-kilter favoring a lower ama. I hardly notice it. When I brought crew one day, the extra weight favored the vaka side a little. Again, wasn't a big deal. Much of it is aesthetic -- will you be irritated if other people beside yourself see your outrigger as being a little off-kilter? --Wade

[K O'N]

Here it is: a thread for those building wooden outriggers and proas!

Please post builds, questions, sailing pics, etc.

Hi

What an excellent idea for a thread. I built a proa ten years ago, and have been messing about with it since. This is a sort of history of the boat page, if you're interested in that:

http://wikiproa.pbworks.com/w/page/1...Kevin%27s-boat

It's been through a number of rigs and rudders and amas and so on.

I've sailed it on the Texas 200 twice. There's a longish writeup of the 2008 trip here:

http://wikiproa.pbworks.com/w/page/1...Texas-200-2008

A few months ago I bought Skip Johnson's P52 proa. This is Skip sailing her at the Texas Proa Championships 2009:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zfEZDeEOpU

I am in the process of re-rigging her with a crab claw:

http://wikiproa.pbworks.com/w/page/34010366/Swordfish

I hope that I'll be able to sail all winter in somewhat more comfort than I can on my green boat. The green boat is very comfortable to sail, but not very dry when you're going fast in wind and waves. I tend to not sail when it's cold. But the new boat has a cockpit! What a concept. I can't wait to go sailing on a really cold day in a fleece and jeans with a thermos of coffee.



K O'N

[K O'N]

isn't there a texas proa championships?

Yes! And you're invited. So is everyone else.

2008 report:
http://wikiproa.pbworks.com/w/page/2...08-Race-Report

2009 report:
http://wikiproa.pbworks.com/w/page/1...09-Race-Report

2010 report:
http://wikiproa.pbworks.com/w/page/3...onships-report

2011 race announcement:
http://wikiproa.pbworks.com/w/page/1...-Championships

Come out and sail!

K O'N

[trefor]

Yes! And you're invited. So is everyone else.

Come out and sail!

K O'N

does it include tacking outriggers? or is it shunting specific? just curious. i'd love to have the chance to see multiple outriggers on the water sometime. either shunting or tacking.

trevor

[trefor]

sorry, i just read the 2011 race post and answered my own question. it's for shunters. i figured as much, with the name proa championships. it's cool to see the variety of boats in the previous race photos. every setup looks experimental and a little beyond my comprehension. but in a cool way.

trevor

[peterchech]

K O'N you make me wish I lived in Texas!

your story on the texas 200 was excellent, good reading and informative too.

It is really amazing how the internet is helping make proas/outriggers more and more popular. The outrigger "revolution" that really started in Hawaii in the (90's?) has spread, I recently discovered there is an OC club right across the Hudson river from me!

http://www.newyorkoutrigger.org/welcome

Of course, it seems most OC events are paddle-only, but a few have sails... I saw some videos/photos and man, paddling the Molokai channel in an outrigger looks like fuuuuuuuun (huge swells to surf down) and similar conditions can be present in the Northeast US during storm systems/etc... Anyway, thanks to the internet, I have discovered there is an OC6 not far from me, whose owner is always looking for crew.

So much interesting stuff going on in the OC world right now, and so much overlap too, it amazes me... haha although my goal has always been to sail/cruise, it certainly can't hurt to learn some serious paddling skills either, right?

[Brian Palmer]

When the Maynard family sailed around the world in their Spray replica, Scud, Gary picked up a ~10 ft dugout sailing proa in Bali. Gary said it was used as a small harbor fishing canoe, if I recall correctly. He brought it out to Martha's Vineyard one summer (about 1981?). It had a small triangular sail made of flour sacks. It was hoisted on a short mast, like a lateen sail on a Sunfish, except there was a line attached to the forward corner to control the vertical angle of the sail. The sail was supposed to be more vertical going upwind and less vertical off the wind. There was no rudder, just a paddle you held against the lee side as a combination lee-board/rudder in the corner between the hull and the forward edge of the aft cross piece.

I got to sail it for an afternoon on a salt pond on the south side of the Island. It was a lot of fun and pretty quick for such a small, simple boat. A very organic experience sitting on the edge of the narrow main hull with my knees in my chest and only a few inches of freeboard.

Brian

[AnalogKid]

Can any of you shed any light on the mystery of the lee side 'Kiribati Dimple'?

If I get around to building a proa then a little hull asymmetry would seem sensible to produce a boat that makes little leeway, and the dimple seems to be an excellent way of achieving that asymmetry and also reducing drag. However, I have no idea how big an indentation is required, or how to transition from the convex hull shape into the concave dimple without making the change either too abrupt as to be unfair or so fair that it's effect is reduced. While the boat in the Auckland museum from which I draw inspiration is asymmetrical, I could see no dimple.

If you've no idea what I'm talking about, then I suggest you read this: Harmen Hielkema on hull asymmetry.

[wtarzia]

The Kiribati dimple is intriguing. If water were compressible, then there might be little mystery: you narrow the hull where the shockwave forms to reduce the speed of the airflow. But in an incompressible medium, I am confused. Perhaps the dimple influences transverse shockwaves (what we call waves), thus affecting wave-making drag? It deserves some flow tests and theorizing, as much as sails deserve wind tunnel tests! -- Wade

[K O'N]

does it include tacking outriggers? or is it shunting specific? just curious. i'd love to have the chance to see multiple outriggers on the water sometime. either shunting or tacking.

trevor

The proa race is for proas, which have to shunt. But if someone with a tacking outrigger were to show up I doubt very seriously we'd send them packing, we'd certainly let them race and decide about listing the results later.

I keep hoping the guy with Flaquita will come, or someone with an Ulua or a Wa'apa.

K O'N

[Rob Hazard]

Anyone here built or sailed a Dierking T-2? It's such a sleek looking design, especially with the Euell Gibbons rig.

[wtarzia]

I sailed aboard Carlos Solanilla's version of the T2 for a day. I haven't seen him on this thread yet, though. We sailed it as a tacking double-outrigger despite the asymetric hull. It did work that way, oddly enough, though the wind was light and we didn't have much of a chance to check its performance that way. When he sailed it as a shunting proa it was pretty fast. -- Wade

[trefor]

The proa race is for proas, which have to shunt. But if someone with a tacking outrigger were to show up I doubt very seriously we'd send them packing, we'd certainly let them race and decide about listing the results later.

I keep hoping the guy with Flaquita will come, or someone with an Ulua or a Wa'apa.

K O'N

well, maybe when i get my wa'apa done and can afford to travel and have a "real" sail made for it. i'm sure the first one will be on par with the two crude blue tarp sails i fashioned for my 8' sailing dinghy last year. from what i've seen of other participants, it'd be the cheapest and lowest tech boat there.

trevor

[peterchech]

trevor, as far as low tech sails go, I must recommend to you canvas "painter's tarp" that you can buy at any big box store quite cheaply. A 70 square ft. lugsail I recently built costed $30 US.



Lot's of people get insulted on this forum when anyone suggests using cotton canvas, but as I always say, it has been in use for thousands of years and works very well. I am no expert sailmaker, haha as you can prob tell from the photo above, but the sail works very well. The biggest advantage I have found with the canvas is, paradoxically to any sailor, its stretchiness. You really don't have to sew in any luff, darts, or seams, just sew it straight, in exactly the 2-D shape you want, perhaps with a bolt rope on the edges, and the natural stretch of the material forms just the right amount of scoop. So easy! Is dacron higher performance? yes. But really not by that much unless you are racing. And the canvas is so much more beautiful and pleasant to work with than polytarp! If you screw up big time (like I did on my first sail), you can just make another for $30!

[wtarzia]

You can also use plastic tarps, which probably do not stretch as much as cotton. A couple of darts and some luff-rounding puts some shape. Todd Bradshaw has some instructions around someplace about making a serious sail out of tarp. Tarp stretches eventually but it is pretty strong. You can even get white polytarp if you look -- I got some at a West Marine store a few years ago, but then made the decision to buy professional dacron sails. With white tarp you will be less likely to be pulled over for an Coast Guard inspection :-) I also went with the flat-cut cotton painter's cloth route once, on a sprit sail I intended only for down-wind courses on my old dory after a rowing outing. It does have the classic look, in any event. But I vote for white poly tarp. if you go with a traditional crabclaw sail, you can induce some sail shape with the windward brailing line used delicately during light winds -- an extra half-knot or so. In brisker winds it won't matter too much, the crabclaw isn't going to get you too high anyway. But many fast close-reaches (which a flat-cut crabclaw excells at) are more fun than slow pinchings-up. --Wade

[trefor]

thanks for the suggestion of canvas sails. though, i'm really not too embarrassed by the use of polytarp. after downloading a couple hundred outrigger and proa reference photos from the web, it seems to be a standard working sail material in most of the areas these craft are native too. if it's good enough for many an island fisherman to make a living by, then it's just fine for me on an afternoon of lake sailing.

is that a cartopper? i sailed one a couple months ago and really liked it. i gave it some thought before fully committing to the wa'apa. the boat i built last winter was a bolger elegant punt. which is not a great sailing/rowing boat, but it got my feet wet in sailing and building.

trevor

[trefor]

wade,

if i remember correctly, on the yahoo proafile site (or maybe it was here) you mentioned once that you were thinking of restoring your original proa. did you ever get around to it?

trevor

[JimD]

I would imagine a canvas sail stretches around the CE of the sail, which does not create an efficient foil. As for polytarp, if you're going to cut so called 'darts' then it isn't much more work to cut proper panel shapes for an efficient foil shape. That's what I did for our pram dinghy and I'd wager it is almost as efficient a sail as anything one could buy professionally designed.

[wtarzia]

...if i remember correctly, on the yahoo proafile site (or maybe it was here) you mentioned once that you were thinking of restoring your original proa. did you ever get around to it? ...

--- You recall correctly. It was a misguided sentimental idea as I already have no room for more boats :-) and I did not finish. I sawed stuff off and began prepping to join the formerly two-piece bolt-up hull into a one 14 foot hull, but I stopped there as time came to start my Everglades Challenge modifications to the current outrigger. It is under a quarter inch of frost in backyard, but I will probably get back to it, because I want to see that hull made as it should have been from the start, and who knows, maybe I can give it away to a proto-proa person someday, better than letting that good marine plywood decay. -- Wade

[wtarzia]

A free-style poem for the proa hobbyist, written while modifying my first proa (cutting stuff out to lighten it after over-building it in the "over-building" years of a rank amateur):

The Hobbyist

The basement workshop reeks
of dreams curing, hardening,
stiffening with time; not
the horror of mythological curse
but just a boat fashioned
by the magic of epoxy and bronze
nails. The Greeks believed in
an age of bronze, and iron, and gold--
I believe in ring nails and plywood
and chemicals part A and part B--
still, myths have often told of fire and ice,
earth and sky, death and life,
so who’s to say this creature
forming under chemical halves
and hammer strokes sounding
like the strife of elements
has no element of myth?

But I feared no tale would bring this boat
to Puluwat to rest
on sand or water, or to part
the lagoon or pierce
open ocean swell. I had no
breadfruit tree, nor a seashell adz,
nor the songs for magic or work.
Still -- I had a vision that

Rotowe once stepped on
a splinter and cursed
in the boat-house, and old
Mau sighting along a hull plank,
ready for lashing didn’t blink
but said, “Didn’t I say
to sweep that mess aside?”

The basement workshop hurts too
my feet sometimes as wood
chips embed in foot flesh.
For in a snowstorm
of sweat, dust, saw, adz, sander
I had made a cement-floored boat-house
and Dad dead long ago but peering
through his old eyeglasses
I have always hung on my workshop walls
mnemonically mutters about that floor,
and Mau whispers, “Didn’t you listen to your elders?”
Then I was not afraid, and turned back to bench.

[peterchech]

I would imagine a canvas sail stretches around the CE of the sail, which does not create an efficient foil.

I mean, I've sailed plenty of dacron sailed boats, and of course the dacron is somewhat more efficient (mostly because it is low stretch and the exact shape of the foil can be controlled in the cut) but on traditional non-bermuda low aspect sails (like a lug), I am not sure how much difference foil shape really makes. In fact, even on high aspect bermuda rigs I seriously doubt that moving the foil's deepest point forward of the CE slightly makes a huge difference for a non-racer... don't get me wrong, dacron is the most efficient sail material, but even if it gives me a half knot more speed (at best IMHO) and somewhat better acceleration the cost and complication of sewing it just isn't worth it to me (I prefer working with wood, I'm def not a seamstress :-)... my 2 cents and worth every penny

Trevor yes that is a cartopper. It is a wonderful and fun little boat. Surprisingly seaworthy and dry too. My current limitation is that anything I build must be cartopped (nowhere to put a trailer- wade know how that is!). So the only way to get a bigger boat than the cartopper is to build an outrigger!

[peterchech]

BTW on another thread I was informed that alot of people go to the woods nearest them and harvest downed trees (mostly cedar) for use as lumber. What a wonderful, cost saving idea! Haha maybe I'll even try a dugout ;-) how's that for traditional?

[peterchech]

Wade are you doing the EC this year? What mods are you doing to prep for it? I may want to do it myself, when is the registration and date for it if you know? (watertribe's website can be confusing sometimes)

[peterchech]

oh nevermind they redid the website much clearer

[wtarzia]

BTW on another thread I was informed that alot of people go to the woods nearest them and harvest downed trees (mostly cedar) for use as lumber. What a wonderful, cost saving idea! Haha maybe I'll even try a dugout ;-) how's that for traditional?

--- There's a guy here on the Connecticut shore, Forrest Lowry, who is building a dug-out proa from a big tree he felled on his family property, and plans to go as traditional as possible, including lashed on planks. He is saving time by chanin-sawing the bulk of it out (which Iguess is sort of traditional now even in the Pacific!). -- Wade

[wtarzia]

Wade are you doing the EC this year? What mods are you doing to prep for it? I may want to do it myself, when is the registration and date for it if you know? (watertribe's website can be confusing sometimes)

--- I am signed up for the 2011 EC and plan to go if acts of gods do not prevent. I have somuch frickin' money invested in boat and gear and imagination that I if don't go I will become clinically depressed. Modifications:

(1) The big one: I am using the two inflatable amas (400 lbs + displacement each) for a trimaran configuration. I am building a new set of curved box-beam akas to drop them down (see my youtube video from early december to see how much I need to lower the amas)

(2) Last spring I added watertight chambers except for 40 inches of cockpit. The big deck hatch will let bme stow the sleeping bag and big food bags for the EC.

(3) I got a jib and small mizzen from Todd Bradshaw to multiply rigging options. Thus: I sailed in small craft advisory conditions a month ago with the tiny mizzen (20) , and my lug mizzen (37) moved to the main, and proved to myself that the boat was very well controlled in that mode, through some very rough water. But otherwise the tiny mizzen will be stowed. The jib adds a little drive and makes another heavy-air option with the main dropped and mizzen left up (this summer my main halyard broke, so I got the chance to finish the last mile of the cruise on jib and mizzen, and it worked even though the jib was a bit slack without sheet tension on the main mast; I have a long jib halyard though which can be run back to the aft ama like a running back-stay). I want to add a permanent short-bow-sprit and change to a balanced jib because stowing the long sprit was clunky.

(4) the canoe is in the garage now to get a PVC mast tube to totally seal off the bow compartment and to make getting th main mast out and in easier, since the EC requires some de-rigging at some bridges.

(5) Get back to gym. I started a gym membership for EC 2009 and kept at it, but this summer and fall I really fell off a regular schedule. Must get back for general tone before March; two months is barely enough time for that.

(6) Lots of little things to keep me busy before March, such as re-rerunning sheets, pronviding for easy anchor stowage (right now it is in bag, rarely used, but on EC, I must assume I will be exhauted and need to get it out fast and collaspe exhausted), making light side-seats on akas that can flip aside instantly for paddling, and a filler-deck over footwell so I can sleep squeezed (literally) on the deck of the canoe if need be (5 inches of topsides will keep me in). Also, though I have a Gortex bivvy sack for sleeping in, I might provide for a simple boom tent so I do not have to wake up in pouring rain and somehow get out of the bivvy sack and keep its insides dry. And more.... This "little things" list is actually pretty daunting! I fear it far more than ther "bigger things" list. -- Wade

[peterchech]

Wow, sounds impressive! You have no crew?

[trefor]

Trevor yes that is a cartopper. It is a wonderful and fun little boat. Surprisingly seaworthy and dry too. My current limitation is that anything I build must be cartopped (nowhere to put a trailer- wade know how that is!). So the only way to get a bigger boat than the cartopper is to build an outrigger!

i really liked the one i got to sail. it was the quickest boat of four that i got to sail at the oklahoma messabout in october. i sailed it, two PDRs and a michalak piccup pram that weekend. the PDRs were fun and ridiculously stable for an eight foot boat. after sailing my bolger EP all summer, they were really simple. the piccup pram was very solid and felt like it would make a good camping boat. the cartopper was the most fun to sail, though. it was surprisingly fast and just glided through the water without much wake.

i have the same cartop limitations. i also have just a small one-car garage to build in.

trevor

[trefor]

wade,

i'm looking forward to following your progress on the EC. with all your preparations and the event, best of luck to you, sir!

trevor

[wtarzia]

Peter -- No,no crew. I would have asked 2009 EC partner Carlos to come along but a 16 foot proa is way too small for a crew. I sailed it once on a lake in very light air with girlfriend and her little granddaughter, and though it worked, it was clearly a crowd.

Trevor, thanks. I will be the least experienced contender there -- the skill level at an EC is truly impressive -- so it will be interesting. Aiming just to finish under the wire and have a few stories to tell! -- Wade

[Chris Ostlind]

Wade,

Unless you are a world class sailor, such as, Rolex Sailor of the Year, Randy Smyth, (and he still has a lot to pull together with his boat) you are going down there to get an idea as to how your rig, hull and attachment points can hold together in a wildly fluctuating set of conditions that will likely be quite a bit different than the ones you used to dial-in the boat prior to the road trip down to the launch. Do not, under any circumstances, view this as a terminal act that may lead to a failure of understanding of the basic conditions of the first leg of the journey. Like any coastal adventure cruise, there is much to comprehend and having the whole thing understood is as much a matter of luck, as it is design understanding and execution.

Give yourself the pleasure of doing this as a learning experience and absorbing it in the same fashion. You are a very bright guy, Wade, and I hope that you will have a great time, no matter the outcome. Learn and come away from the EC as a person who has gone much, much further in the process than most of the readers here and hold that knowledge for future interests. Who knows, you may even finish the event in grand style and set a standard for dozens of followers.

Me... I wish you all the good fortune allowed and look forward to your photos and trip reports with anxious interest.

Your friend,

Chris Ostlind
Lunada Design

[wtarzia]

Thanks Chris. I am focusing on getting there to start. So many little things can go wrong, as in 2009, when a month before the race I pulled a muscle in my back at the gym so badly I thought I had ruptured a disk! Three days of heat-packs flat on my back and girlfriend's chicken soup and I could walk again, but man, did that teach me about how easy it is to fail to make the start line. In the days before the race, I steered away in comic panic from anybody sneezing and coughing. I like what Alan Stewart (SOS, he and his partner built a 24 foot Dierking Wa'Apa and placed in good time) told me a few days ago: 'Don't drop out unless you break a bone or stab yourself in the eye. Rest, eat, sleep, and keep going.' Yes: even if I fail to reach a checkpoint on time and disqualify, I intend to finish the course to maintain the honor of outrigger craft and my personal education :-) -- Wade