After sailing the strange waters of the Great Salt
Lake for three or four years I started to realize that my West Wight
Potter 19, wonderful as it is, is not the one and only boat for me. I was
beginning to hear the call of far-flung places, some of them totally
devoid of launch ramps or even convenient beach roads. When vacation time
came around, I found myself having to choose between the boat and the tent
trailer; I couldn’t tow both, could I? Alright, yes I did consider it, but
I knew that what I really needed was a simple, lightweight beachable boat
that could be rowed or paddled. And I wanted to build it myself, mostly
for reasons of economy, as I was totally and naively unaware at the time
of the life-altering consequences of contracting the boatbuilding bug.
It eventually came down to a simple choice: should I build a canoe
or a lightweight car-toppable sailboat? When someone suggested that I
investigate sailing canoes, I thought he was joking. But then I stumbled
across a drawing of a John Bull designed outrigger sailing canoe. My head
did a full 360. I had never seen anything like this! I had to have one.
But would it fit the (admittedly ambitious) list of criteria that had been
forming in my head?
My criteria:
- 1. Must be within the range of my skills, schedule and resources
- 2. Must be built in my 8’X18’ basement shop area
- 3. Removable from my basement shop (up stairwell, through door,
90 degree turn)
- 4. Car-toppable with single-handed load & unload
- 5. Light enough to be carried or dollied by one person .
- 6. Safe, stable and reasonably fast sailor
- 7. Superior thin-water performance
- 8. Convertible, with removable sail rig that leaves nothing to
inhibit paddling.
- 9. Size: Large enough for the whole family (self, wife & two
small boys) or two people with minimal camping gear.
- 10. Quick setup, breakdown
Building the
outriggers |
Deep down inside I knew the outrigger canoe would be a small boat
for a family, but it was just so strange and wonderful, and I was
determined to make it fit my criteria - with a crowbar if need be. After a
frustrating period of trying to round up the John Bull plans I discovered
that Chesapeake Light Craft sells plans and kits for a similar
open-cockpit kayak, and even had plans for an outrigger sail rig. To make
a long story short, I ordered and built the CLC Mill Creek 16.5 from a
kit. As it turned out, my whole family did fit, although snugly. It gets
to be pretty crowded when both boys want to help paddle. It turned out to
be the largest boat I could have built in my basement anyway; I was able
to get it out of the basement, but with less than an inch to spare after
removing the washer and dryer at the top of the stair well. Two years have
passed since I started the project. The boys are bigger now, the boat is
tighter and now I’m planning my next project. But that’s another story.
This was to be my first boat building project. I found the
stitch-and-glue method to be a good building process for someone with
limited spare time. A lot of the work could be broken down into 20-30
minute jobs that require epoxy-setting time in between. Epoxy is
wonderful, forgiving, and - best of all - odorless stuff. I could build in
my basement without fumigating my family. I built the main hull over the
first winter and started working out concepts for the sail rig.
I didn’t care for some details of the CLC rig. For one thing, the
akas (outrigger beams – you gotta use the Polynesian terminology if you’re
playing with multihulls) appeared to have high-stress points where they
bolted to the main hull, and the amas (outrigger pontoons) used
problematic sockets for attaching to the outer ends of the amas. I saw a
drawing of James Wharram’s method of lashing his catamarans together and
decided to try a similar approach. This would allow the connection points
a degree of flex that would help distribute loads across the entire
system.
After paddling the boat for a season I set aside the next winter’s
spare time to build the sail rig. I bought the CLC plans and built
twelve-foot amas to their dimensions, with some modifications for my own
attachment hardware.
Now, I don’t claim to be an engineer by any stretch of the
imagination and I don’t advocate modifying a designer’s plans in any way,
shape or form. But that didn’t stop ME. I eliminated the ama sockets
altogether and designed cleats for lashing the akas to both the hull and
the amas. As a side note, I have noticed that CLC recently released their
Mark 2 sail rig, which has no sockets and uses lashings for the
ama-to-hull attachments. I guess I was ahead of my time. If only I’d
thought of some of the more elegant solutions they came up with.
I bought a used dinghy sail and mast and cobbled together the sail
hardware, rudder mechanism and leeboard out of odds and ends gleaned from
West Marine and the hardware store.
The first launch was made with little fanfare and even less wind.
Everything seemed sound and well placed. I could operate all features of
the boat, including reefing without moving from the rear cockpit seat. I
quickly realized that a single paddle was a lot more practical than my
usual double paddle for maneuvering with the sail rig attached. A few
weeks later I had a chance to put her through her paces on a three-day
Easter camping trip to a lakeside campground. The wind was fickle and
gusty, but when it picked up my little boat took off like a rocket! All of
the weak links showed up almost immediately and I made temporary fixes
until I could get back to the shop for some more permanent modifications.
The most rewarding lesson I learned on that trip was about the incredible
freedom of being able to sail right up onto the beach anywhere I wanted to
explore.
How does my little trimaran stack up to my list of criteria so far?
Well, the jury is not entirely in; I’m still learning and making
improvements. I haven’t been able to log as nearly as much sailing time as
I had hoped, but I have been able to make a couple more outings this
season. The real shake-down was a 20 mile out-and-back sail to a remote
island in the Great Salt Lake. Not only did the little boat prove herself
to be fast and versatile, but she was stable enough for my crew and I to
stand up and move about easily while under sail. The kick-up leeboard and
rudder really helped her excel for thin water sailing and she passed the
test for transportability and remote launch and recovery.
The lashings worked well, but the Dacron cord I used was a little
too stretchy at the hull connections. I’ll replace it with no-stretch
Spectra cord. I also plan to simplify the attachment at the amas. With
twelve lash points to secure, I totally missed my goal for a quick and
easy set-up.
My clever (at least I thought so at the time) two-phase cleats
worked great except they sit too low and actually pierce the water’s
surface on the leeward side, causing unnecessary drag. Bozo engineering at
its finest.
I learned that tacking a lightweight, jib-less trimaran is an art
unto itself. I have yet to achieve it without a couple of paddle strokes,
but I’m still experimenting with the size and placement of foils. The
balanced rudder feels like power steering, but my attractive all-mahogany
rudder mechanism has proven itself more pretty than practical, suffering
from some degree of stress damage every time I’ve used it. The lesson here
is: don’t underestimate the stresses that might be placed on your foils. I
plan to go back to good old pintles and gudgeons. I’ve also rebuilt my
leeboard to make it stiffer.
My conclusion? All things considered, I think I was pretty
successful. I built a boat that I can be proud of and I actually pulled
off a reasonably good sampling of my criteria list. Is it perfect? Nope.
Is it the last boat I’ll ever build? Not by a long shot.
One thing that I love about this boat is its versatility. Not only
do I have a nice decked canoe for pure paddling fun, but at the wave of a
wand it converts into a fast, stable sailing trimaran.
What’s next for me? For one thing, I’d like to build a second,
ultralight sail rig that I can stow on board, for on-the-fly conversions
between sail and paddle on shorter trips. And my boys are getting bigger,
so I’ll still need the family-sized beach boat. Then there’s that larger
cruising trimaran out there somewhere in my future… But I don’t have time
for any of that now. I’m too busy finishing the new boat shop in my
backyard.
I’ll be back. |