Big Canoes

Yesterday afternoon Alan, Matt, and I knocked out the last of the side hull sections on the Shop-Bot. By that time Chris was out of class, so we decided to mock up a hull with clamps, here are some of the pictures.

They look ready to take on the Manatees.

I can imagine these looks at the end of 300 miles.

One of the design school shop workers knows a thing or two about homebuilt boats, and he asked us how long the race was, we responded "300 Miles" and he said that the sea wasn't that deep. The next picture puts his words into a visual form.

After we wrapped up at the design shop the four of us went on a hunt for some fiberglass and bronze nails. Turns out that the nails are only available online, and the fiberglass would cost us one son and one daughter. Unfortunately we don't have any sons or daughters, so we couldn't get any fiberglass, but we're working on a deal with that supplier.

Tiny Canoes

We had hoped to have the bulkheads cut by today but the ShopBot having recently been setup for use and not properly calibrated yet and the woodshop lab hours being limited on the weekend, we decided to take our side panel and bulkhead CAD files for the canoes and have some fun in the laser cutting lab. Here is the result of our days work. We built 4 models so that we could each put one together.
Cutting out the bulkheads and side panels on the laser cutter and assembling the boats in miniature was a really good exercise for the overall construction of the boats. With some more work tomorrow, we hope to have the ShopBot up and running and get some full sized boat pieces cut out. Below are some more picture of the models.

We've Got Wood! ... for building boats

That's right, we are now committed to our three board canoes. We picked up the lumber today and have begun work on rescaling the plans. Capitol City Lumber was very generous and offered us the wood at their highest discount. We opted for Exterior A-C plywood because we feel that the extra cost does not outweigh the benefit for a canoe that we do not plan to mount a motor on. But mostly because marine plywood (Okume or the like) is simply out of our price range.

We will use a shop-bot that we have access to at school to cut out our bulkheads and side panels. That should make quick and accurate work of the “curvy pieces” so that we can begin assembly. The shop-bot shown here is basically a 3-axis router that can cut 4x8 sheets of wood to exact shapes based on a CAD file. Here is a picture of one.









We plan to modify the deck to more fully enclose the canoe and allow for cockpits to be cut so that we can outfit the boat with spray-skirts. We will also be designing our mast step and outrigger crossbeam mounting cradles into the hull as well as all the necessary storage compartments, hatches and closed cell foam buoyancy compartments.


We hope to begin cutting, shaping, and assembling this weekend so stay tuned for pictures and information.

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.

Everglades challenge 2007

The EC (everglades challenge) is a 300 mile unsupported expedition race from Fort De Soto to Key Largo Florida. Challengers have 1 week to complete the journey and are required only to check in at 3 checkpoints along the way.

For more information go to www.watertribe.com and click on "Everglades Challenge". Please help us finish this amazing challenge.

Jordan Lake Sailing (with video!!!) 4-9-06

This composite picture gives some idea of the great conditions we had on Jodan lake last Sun. Clear skies an plenty of wind. Along with the Carolina Sailing Club, there were about 10 to 15 boats on the lake including my hobie 16, Mike Easely's hobie 16, another hobie 16, and Trey's Inter 20.



Check out this video my mom took while on the hobie 16. I took her for a ride, she told me to slow down, I didn't listen. Hobie 16 video. Here are some more pictures from Sun.


Mike stepping the mast of his hobie 16 "Soggy Cheeto".


More pictures. My mom agreed to TRY the trapeze. She didn't fall in at least.

Cape Lookout Sailing Trip

Last weekend, the NC State sailing club made a trip out to Cape Lookout on the NC outer banks. We sailed out of Taylor's Creek in Beaufort and out to Lookout Point. We took Trey's Inter-20 catamaran, my Nacra 5.5 catamaran, a hobie 16, a hobie 18, a JY-15, an MX-Ray, and a Flying Scott. On the way out, the Scott turtled in a gust and sent the 5 people on board into the cold water. Our chase boat was lagging behind and we ended up having to call the coast guard to help rescue some cold sailors. All was well however once we had a fire going and dry cloths on. Thank goodness for drysuits like mine!!! We had a long memorable night around the campfire and sailed back the next day. What a great trip. (Above pic: Matt and I flying a hull with the spin up WOOOHOOO!) More pics below.

Ray skippering the Hobie 18

Matt and I on the 5.5

Do'n the Wild Thang!!!

On the beach finally

Huddled around the fire

Morning sun on the campsite

Spring Break '06 Pensacola, FL

Spring break 06' was an awesome trip to Pensacola Florida. Trey (a college sailing buddy of mine) and I drove down on Sat March 11th to the home of Kirk Newkirk. Newkirk is a famous name all around the south east in the catamaran sailing world and him and his wife offered to let us stay in their basement for the week. Thanks! Kirk also owns and manages Key Sailing, a sailboat and jetski rental shop just off the bridge on Quietwater Beach road. http://keysailing.com/. Mon. morning we set up the Inter 20 (20 foot beach catamaran seen in the picture) on the beach at Key Sailing and had lunch at Surf Burger, a burger shop just above key sailing's shop. mmmm surf burgers good. We went out sailing on mon. and relaxed as much as possible.
Later that week we sailed from Pensacola to Panama City. It took us 9hours and we covered about 90 miles. What an adventure!

Flying a Hull!

Trey on the wire

Hey Trey, got a towel???