Canoe building plans

While researching boats for possible use in the Everglades Challenge, we came across the Wa'apa and were interested because of its simplistic and efficient construction.Gary Dierking of Outrigger Sailing Canoes http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/garyd/ graciously supplied us with a copy of construction plans for this craft and we are looking into the materials list and design to see if this is the boat for us. Thanks a lot Gary.
There are many other interesting and easy to build sailing canoes on the outrigger Sailing Canoes website so please take a look.

The Wa'apa is a three board canoe that is very simple to built. A three board canoe is so named because that is how it is built. There are a couple of designs for this boat including a shunting version and a tacking version. It is also possible to build the boat such that it can be broken into 8 foot sections that bolt together at bulkheads.

We would plan to build two identical boats that would have the capability to be sailed or paddled individually or connected and sailed together in a catamaran configuration for use in our 4 man team entry in the Everglades Challenge in 2007.

Canoe Sailing on Jordan Lake

The Team rented a 16 foot canoe from the university last weekend to try our hand at canoe sailing. We outfitted the canoe with my windsurfer mast and a 5.5 meter sail as well as a sunfish daggerbaord and two inflatable bow air bags for a kayak that we used as outriggers.
To the lake we went. We were able to all pile in which was a good test of a boat loaded with gear even if this wasnt the boat we would use.

There was a steady 6 knots with gusts to 8-10 and we putted across the lake at about 3knots with a top speed of about 4. Granted, at this speed paddling is far more efficent and faster, we were interested in seeing how far we could get on sail power alone. It was a fun expereiment and for 8 dollars for the canoe it was unanimously agreed to be in the college student budget.


The pictures don't tell the whole story, so here is some video.