A Paddle Down the Danube

 In June I'll be setting off for a paddle down the Danube. I am hoping to complete the 2000km from Vienna to Sulina on the Black Sea.

I'll try to keep the clickable map below updated with my progress:

Extending the Wa'apa Sailing Canoe to 21 Feet

Last winter I built a 5 foot centre section for my sailing canoe. This is a great two  person option. . I use the two 55 foot Solway Dory sails with this setup, adding a nice bit of extra power that she can easily handle. 

Adding a Mizzen sail to my Outrigger Sailing Canoe

 One of the first modifications I did was to add a mizzen sail to my 16 foot Wa'apa outrigger sailing canoe. Again I bought this sail from Solway Dory. It is a 35 foot bermudan sail, giving a total sail area of this setup to 90 feet. 

I really like having the mizzen sail as it helps to balance the helm and also adds to the performance. This small clip was taken when sailing from Teignmouth back to Exmouth. Both sails are easily reefable by wrapping the sail round the mast.

Wa'apa Outrigger Sailing Canoe

 I haven't posted for a while so thought it was about time I gave an update. 

After much though, a couple of years ago I decided to build a Gary Dierking Wa'apa sailing canoe. I built it using Gary's excellent book Outrigger Sailing Canoes. Initially I built the 16 foot version. The sail is the fantastic Solway Dory 55 foot Bermudan rig:

I built the full sized amas and they do look a little long with the 16 foot configuration, however they perform very well and dampen any hobby horsing effects that can occur in shorter double ender canoes.

Since this initial build I have done a number of modifications including adding additional sails, and building a removable 5 foot centre section for better two person sailing. I'll add some more updates and some videos soon, but suffice to say I am very pleased with my car top sailing canoe!

Skin on Frame Canoe

Just finished my latest project, a skin on frame pack canoe.....weighing in at just under 11.5 KG. After the Scupper Pro this boat is a pleasure to load on the roof rack!

Another great day kayak sailing at Exmouth

Launching from Orcombe Point, it was a bit of a hard slog against wind and tide, but eventually I made it into the protection of the estuary. Here is a picture of the new mainsail, you can also see the oversize rudder which has been a great improvement for sailing performance.

Later on returning to the sea front the wind piped up which lead to some exciting sailing:

Improvements on my Trimaran Kayak setup

Recently I have built a slightly larger rudder for my Scupper Pro for kayak sailing. The rudder is slightly balanced by having some of the area forward of the rudder pintle. This reduces significantly the pressure required on the foot peddles.

I have also recently added a new mainsail. I went out for a sail this weekend to test both the rudder and new sail and was very pleased with the results

I am having alot of fun with my trimaran setup for the Scupper Pro at the moment and have decided to carry out the following improvements over the coming winter:

• Work out furler reefing system for main and mizzen
• Build new improved amas with a little more buoyancy and longer akas
• Rebuild my mizzen mast step as the original is showing signs of wear after 6 years
• Renew the mizzen sail, 

Happy kayak sailing!

Rxsailor

Kayaking on the South Devon Coast

 

I have been doing a little more Kayaking with my good friend John Holden recently. We had a good trip on the water today:

Here is a pic of John on a training paddle. The headland behind is called Straight Point, and is best known as the location of one of the Royal Marines firing ranges. John informed me that he spent many a day on that range getting up to mischief when he was in the Marines!

A little more about my trimaran

I received a very nice email from someone asking a little about the skinny trimaran I am developing, so I thought I would give some more detail around my design goals and how the boat is put together.

Design Goals

• Ultra narrow centre hull with a high beam / length ratio
• Very light
• To be able to fit everything except the hull in my car. This meant the max length of the amas and akas needed to be 8 feet and I would need collapsible masts.
• Modest sail area, Ketch rigged to keep centre of effort fairly low
• Intended to only be used in a sheltered estuary
• To be able to sail in skinny water when necessary, so kick up foils needed, or perhaps skegs
• In order to build a 20 foot trimaran in a 17 foot garage I would make one 16 foot section and a 4 foot section
• Reasonable upwind performance
• My goal was not to make really a high speed craft as this would mean going into a whole design spiral of bigger and stronger components. That being said I do hope to achieve reasonable performance for such a modest sail area.

Build
The hull is made from 4mm ply on the sides and closed cell foam underneath sheathed in fibre glass. The idea of the foam was to enable me to develop the underside into a u shape to help reduce wetted surface. In hind sight this is a very time consuming process and probably for very little gain. If I were to do this again I would have a ply underside.

The four foot stern section

The amas are made using 4mm ply and a fairly standard stitch and glue technique. Although this gives a fairly nice shape and was easy to make, without another chine they will not have enough buoyancy when I start using the full 45 square feet of sail.

The akas I made from 8 strips of pine glued and held in a jig. It was not necessary to steam them and was quite a quick method of creating nicer amas than aluminium tube.

Results to date
Well, it certainly is a skinny trimaran! When I first went out I just shifted my weight and with a little stern rudder from my paddle I could steer.....just. I then made a quarter rudder which was not successful, too flimsy and 6 foot from the stern. One particular thing I was really pleased with was the absolute minimum of wake from the hull, as can be seen from the video I have already posted on this blog here

I also found it a bit fiddly bolting on the stern section and akas. This weekend I decided to try adding a shorter permanent stern making it 17 foot instead of 20 feet. This will fit in my garage and there will be no messing with bolting it together. I have also started building a foot controlled rudder which I am hoping will work much better. If the shorter stern section does not work out I may just permanently attach the longer stern but that would mean keeping the boat outside from that point.

 

Next to do

• Complete rudder and stern section.
• Lower amas and at the same time make a simpler connector rather than the current system of using bolts
• Work out positioning of leeboard, or maybe just use skegs on the amas - I am undecided on this at the moment
• Make a seat with sides so I don't fall off!
• I realise that my initial design goal of getting everything except the hull in my car too limiting on the design. I have therefore decided that if this design proves promising I might make longer, more buoyant amas.

Happy sailing!
RxSailor

Trying out my kayak trimaran



I tried out the  new curved akas I have been making on my kayak trimaran today. The pictures show only one sail but I have another mast step behind the seat for a mizzen I hope to use once I have the rudder sorted out.

The akas worked well although using wing nuts to secure the akas and amas  takes more
time to setup than I would like and is a little too fiddly for my liking.

As I need to drop the height of the amas a few inches I might look at making a simpler connecter to save setup time. Here is a short video I managed to take today: