First sail of the full size Wa'apa

Today we made it onto the water with the new middle section (making 24 foot), extended trailer, safety ama and twin laser rigs.

Things that went well

Today's wind started at a force 4 and now we have twice the power we were going pretty quickly but it was a bit too much for Liz to balance on her own. The safety ama saved us several times, touching down in a very smooth, progressive way and giving us plenty of time to release the sheets. Unlike the drain pipe, there's no great explosion of spray and reduction of speed when it hits the water. I'm very happy with it. It's nice and light to move around too.

The reshaped steering oar was a big improvement, removing all the twisting force and making steering much easier - but it's much too short, I had to sail from the rear cockpit to reach the rowlocks, which meant I couldn't help balance the boat. It also bends alarmingly - I need to beef it up, and maybe cut it down to be an ordinary paddle.

Tacking with two sails was a huge improvement, over both the single laser rig and shunting the crab claw rig. We'd sheet in just the rear sail to head up, then when almost head to wind Liz would back the foresail to push the bow around, then sheet it in to bear away. We did some tacks without the steering oar but found the oar useful on the tacks that put the ama out the outside of the turn. Occasionally we picked up quite a bit of speed in reverse but backing both sails on opposite sides still turned the boat with ease.

The new beam lashing arrangement worked well, saving lots of time at the start and end of the day. One end of the rope is attached to a hole in the seat, the turns just go around blocks on the outside of the boat (no more fiddly holes) and the running end is secured to a cleat (no more dodgy knots). It's just about visible in the picture above.

Things that didn't

There was a nasty splintering sound almost as soon as we powered up, and the centreboard folded at it's pivot. I couldn't see any signs of rot, I think we just expected too much from half inch plywood. It even broke the two inch thick handle that was supposed to reinforce the pivot! Fortunately we didn't really miss it as we were just reaching back and forth.


More seriously, the rigs aren't balanced. I couldn't apply much power with the aft sail without the boat heading up into wind. This meant I needed the oar to keep us straight, and thus needed to stay in the aft cockpit to give the oar something to lever against. It's possible that this is just because we didn't have a kicker (vang) on the front rig, or we may have to try a smaller sail at the rear (laser 4.7, maybe even an optimist rig!). Moving the rigs forward would involve a hole in the forward watertight compartment, and moving the centreboard would mean not using the nice reinforced pivot I've built in the middle of the boat, and possibly drilling a number of holes the find the right spot.

Anyway, we had a blast and have a fresh set of problems to solve.

Other thoughts

I also spent a while sailing the clubs training dinghys for our open day, and it was an interesting comparison. The Wa'apa was very dry to sail, while the Wayfarer smashed into every little wave and sent sheets of spray over the crew. It was fast but also very relaxed without every gust or lull tipping the you over (although not relaxed enough to take photos - the oar is a two handed job!) It's also very light - I could move it around on our little dolly on my own, even on a slope with slightly soft tires.

Here's a picture of the boat on it's trailer, with the safety ama on top - pretending it's a much bigger boat with a cabin.

The trailer worked well, but doesn't have a lot of ground clearance at the back. The lighting board was knocked off when we hit a rock in the roughest part of the track in the dinghy park.

Spring update

Spring is finally here, and while we've not had much nice sailing weather, it's time to get ready for the season. Building the middle section of the boat was only a fraction of the work that is required to actually sail it. I really want to try sailing a two masted boat, so I plan to use two laser rigs. One will go in the mast step and partner that I used in the 16' boat, and another will go in a new step and partner somewhere in the middle section. So I've made those, and another mast extension.

The spare step is so I can rig the boat with a single sail, for when it's really windy.

As we capsized a few times last year, and the drain pipe didn't have enough buoyancy to support us, I've built a 'safety ama'. This will slip onto the ends of the beams on the side opposite the existing ama. It won't touch the water unless we're about to capsize. It's made from a single 8x4' sheet of 6mm exterior ply and should have over 200 litres of buoyancy. The edges are all covered in glass tape and epoxy. It would have been much easier to build if only the bottom was cuved, but I've curved the 'outside' too. This meant that the beam sockets had to stick out, and one seam has a tricky double curve but I think it looks better and heopfully there will be less slamming and splashing when it hits a wave. Here it is, in front of the rest of the boat, which has spend the winter stacked up in my garage.

Also in the photo is the modified steering oar - I've removed half of one side to make it more balanced. That might sound wrong but the centre of pressure of an aerofoil is 25-33% back from the leading edge. It may need a bit more off because it sits at an angle in the water. It probably also needs to be about a meter longer and have a thicker shaft but I want to get the blade shape right before building another. Another minor improvement is some proper rowlocks for the steering oar. The 'two peg system' I used last year limited the steering angle and nearly broke a few times.

Next to the steering oar is a paddle - I had been using paddles that I made (rather crudely) a few years ago for children in Optimists but they were a bit short, had small blades and had been left out in all weathers. This one might be too big, but like the steering oar, I can always cut it down.

A longer boat needs a longer trailer. I'd picked a trailer that used a scaffold pole for it's spine, so it was relatively easy to fit a longer pole. I say 'relatively' because while it's easy to buy scaffolding on-line, the postage on a 21' steel pole is ten times the price of the pole - no wonder they sell them in packs of 100! Eventually I found a local company who would sell me one of theirs and deliver it when they were passing - thanks Worth Scaffolding! The diagonal braces were looking a little rusty, so I replaced them with some much beefier scaffold tubes that will also support a wooden bearer for the boat. Here's a picture of it as we were building it, looking comicly out of proportion due to our camera's wide angle lens.

Another 'little' job was extending the boat cover - unpicking about 5 meters of stitching and sewing a new panel in the middle. Now I'm just waiting for a few odds and ends and we're ready to get back on the water.

Middle section complete

It's slightly too late for the sailing season, but I've finished the middle section and now have a 24' wa'apa.
Here it is, assembled for the first time in my garden.

I made all four bulkheads at the same time, so all three parts line up well despite not having the ends for reference when I glued the centre section together.You can see the reinforcement for the leeboard in the above picture - the bolt goes through the central frame, which is also reinforced.

I think I need a longer, stronger steering oar but can reuse the bracket I made earlier. It should lash to the holes where the aka used to go, where it is in these pictures (but straight)

The aka lashings are copied from Mr D's later design, 'Tamanu'. I remove the akas for storage, and threading the lashings though holed in the gunnels is quite fiddly - and threading them through holes in a seat would be worse (it's bad enough with the mast partner I added). This way I can just wind the lashing around a block. The construction was slightly complicated by the block being split between two parts of the hull, and having to interrupt the gunnel but I think it'll be well worth it. I'm still undecided about using cleats to finish the lashings.

Right now, it's all in my garage, ready for another coat of International Woodskin. Some parts didn't get the recommended 3 coats last year but have held up very well. I really like how it copes with the wear and tear of lashing wooden parts together, something that would be a real problem for paint or varnish. After that, I'll need to extend the cover and trailer, and build a second laser mast step and partner, and maybe a safety ama and some buoyancy bags, because we're bound to capsize a few times with that much power.

A minor update

We went for another sail today after making a few minor changes to the rig (which always seem to take ages and result in tangles). I added small blocks to the bows for the backstays to reduce friction, and stretched the backstay bungies all the way to the opposite bow to take up all the slack. This made shunting a lot easier, as the slack used to get caught around the boom jaws. The bungies still aren't powerful enough to lift the rig when the tack line is released but it's a lot easier than it used to be to pull a backstay to position the mast.

The next step is another length of bungy; the book mentions 3 lengths of 6mm, so I'd hoped that 9mm would be sufficient, but I guess not. We still have to be careful how we handle the sail during a shunt. It's easy to spend too much time getting tangled and not notice the boat spinning into the wind. It's too easy to be standing on the mainsheet, or the wrong side of the tack line and end up in a mess.

Here's another short video of us sailing: https://youtu.be/1nqyQFIQIgI

Meanwhile, I've started building the middle section. It feels much faster than the bow sections. Maybe I'm getting better, maybe it's easier or maybe it's because there's only one of them...

First outing with the Crab Claw sail

We spent a couple of hours trying to work out how long all the lines should be, where to attach them and how to adjust them. After the simplicity of just plonking in a laser rig, it seemed pretty complex with lines everywhere all only a vague idea what it was supposed to look like.

Then we went for a sail to try it, and even managed to take some short videos.

https://youtu.be/lR_2MyIq5xc
https://youtu.be/RVYTApxmJw0
https://youtu.be/Q0LVeRyGtbM

I forgot to take any photos though.

It's a very different experience to the laser rig, in several ways.

• The boat doesn't feel stressed, even in gusts that would have had the laser mast groaning in it's socket. The shroud and backstay take all the load, so there's very little no load on the beams or twisting the hull. A 2:1 mainsheet was easy to hold and a lot of the time we just held both parts.
• There's no need to tack or gybe. The long hull with very little rocker doesn't turn easily, and tacking got harder as the wind got stronger. Shunting is still very new to us, and we kept getting tangled, but it felt natural for the boat and there are no large forces involved.
• We didn't need the steering oar. It spent most of it's time bungeed to a hiking bench. The boat would naturally turn towards the wind, or bear away if we pull the sail in harder, which didn't seem to affect the speed - just like it says in the book. 
• Hoisting and dropping the sail while afloat was really easy.
• We got taken aback a couple of times and the rig fell down. With the relatively lightweight windsurfer mast spars, this wasn't a big deal. We found it easiest to free the halyard and pull the sail to the mast foot, then the mast could be raised with one hand and the sail hoisted.

There are still plenty of things to work on though.

• I'd like the sail a little higher on the mast, to move it forwards because the boat wants to turn into the wind a bit too much. That will require a longer shroud and back-stays.
• The tack line is too thin; we're handling it a lot so it needs to be an easy size to grip, not just sized for the relatively light load it carries.
• Bungee powered back-stays sound wonderful - I can't wait to try them.
• Brailing lines, we'll probably need them at some point.

More sailing and the start of a Crab claw rig

I've had a few good outings with the laser rig, but I really want to try a shunting rig. A force 4 wind is quite an exhilarating sail at the moment, on the 'proa' tack the front of the ama lifts a foot or two out of the water and we fly along effortlessly. There's a little flex in the aka lashings and there must be a little twist in the hull due to the immense load from the unstayed mast (it's imperceptible) at the front and me sitting about a meter out on the hiking bench at the back.

On the 'trimaran' tack the front of the ama punches through waves, seemingly with little resistance, but it sends a bow wave half a meter into the air - and the centre-board also catches the water and sends it's own spray up high. Fortunately these are both to lee of me, so I can admire the view and stay dry. Unfortunately I haven't taken pictures while I'm sailing.


I've tried flying the ama, and while it can be done, it requires a careful balancing act. If I go to high, the part of the boat that's in the water is tilted under me, and there's no going back. The 3m X 100mm safety ama hit the water with a splash but couldn't support my weight, or right the boat on it's own, but it (and the sealed laser mast) did keep the boat on it's side, and make it easy to right, and I bailed it quickly with a big bucket. Since then I've learnt to tie on the hiking seats and to fly no more than half the ama! This limits me to a force 4, unless I've got some crew for extra ballast ;-)

On both tacks, it's easiest to steer the boat by adjusting the position of the centreboard a little. Fully powered up 'rudderless' sailing feels great! This works best when the board is mounted behind the centre-line, so that putting it down causes the boat to bear away and lifting it up makes the boat round up. I guess that means the rig is a little too far back, but it's much easier than steering with the oar! The oar is great for changing course, but hard to hold an out-of-balance boat. The blade floats, so that most of the blade area in the water is below the centre line, which twists it in my hands. I'll add some weight.

Tacking with the oar is a skill that took a while to understand. First I tip the centre-board right up (which involves moving in from the hiking bench, possibly requiring depowering the sail) and then steer hard upwind. As the boat approaches the eye of the wind, I lift the oar out of it's rest and make one big sweep stroke to push the bow through the wind. Then I move to the other side of the boat, passing the oar behind the mainsheet (and usually hitting my head on the boom). Down goes the centre-board and we're off again.

Unless it's a little windier, then I can't steer and sweep-stroke hard enough to get around and we end up going backwards. It should then be possible to do something clever with the oar on the other side, but that risks tipping over.

Gybing is a similar story, in a force 4 we go around in a big, fast arc. It's very noticeable that having the sail a long way from the centre-line turns the boat, so it's important to keep it in tight and flip it over as soon as possible. If it's too windy to beam reach with the sail in tight, it's impossible to gybe - we just ended up on a flying broad reach with the sail right out and the oar straining to counter it.

So the obvious solution is to sail this boat the way the polynesians did, with a shunting rig. No more tacking and gybing, a shroud to take the load from the sail, and the promise of being able to steer by over-sheeting the sail. I have three old glass/expoy windsurfing masts from a nice chap who was upgrading to carbon masts, a mast foot he also didn't need, and I've made a selection of things to fit in the ends of the mast.



From left to right, the boom jaws (a crude gooseneck), the mast head, the yard tack, the yard head and the boom clew. The first three were carved from an old hard wood doorstep, the last two from an old fence post. I used an 'eight siding gauge' (mine is too crude for a photo, just a bit of wood with two nails and two screws, but it's very satisfying to use) and lots of rasping and sanding.

I put a sheave in the mast head so I could adjust the height of the yard, but then I realised that the shroud and back stays need to attach to the mast at the same height as the yard or there will be a big bending load on the mast. Then I thought I could make a sliding collar where they'd all be attached, but the shroud and stays would have to be adjusted every time it was moved, and I'm pretty sure the mast needs to stay up while I hoist the yard.

I realise that I'm making things difficult for myself here by not following the plans exactly, but the book only has a 5 square meter sail and I've got used to power of the 7 meter laser sail. Hopefully it'll just take a bit of trial and error to work out where everything needs to go, but it really feels like uncharted territory not having measurements for everything I need to make.

In a similar vein, I thought it best to make a practice sail from an old plastic tarp. It's a good thing I did, because sewing is harder than it looks! Here's a close-up of the clew, showing how much I struggled to keep and even speed through the machine, my wonky lines and the number of times the thread broke.




The good news is that even a pretty basic, 45 year old machine has no problems with at least 6 layers of tarp and two layers of nylon webbing.

Trailer, steering oar and other improvements

This winter I've made a few changes to make life easier. The first is a trailer so I don't have to bolt the hull and ama together every time I want to sail. This was rescued from the scrap pile at the sailing club, fitted with new wheel bearings and more proa friendly boat supports (bits of wood and old carpet).

Here it is in 'traveling mode', with everything lashed to the trailer

and here it is in 'storage mode' with everything piled on top. The plastic pipe of the safety ama goes right at the top and supports the cover, which is sown from a plastic tarp. I'm not sure that a large plastic tarp was the best project to learn how to use a sewing machine, as it's slippery when you want it to stay in place, but stiff and heavy when you want to it to feed through the machine - but I've now got a cover that fits (but forgot to take a photo)
Here you can see the giant steering oar I made. It's a bit crude, because I wasn't sure how large it needed to be or what shape to make it.

Here I am, enjoying the English summer weather (rain and almost no wind). I'm grinning because the steering oar and it's support is (as my daughter says) 'super effective'. We can now tack and gybe when we want, and sail where we want to. It's also powerful enough to keep control if you've got four children aboard, all paddling on the same side. The oar support (does it have a name?) is lashed on here, as I wasn't sure if I'd need to adjust it's position.

Also, I've made a small seat to bridge the gap to the plank, and it's great, allowing me to move in and out easily, thus proving that I should have done what it said in the plans in the first place!

Another small improvement is that I removed the captive nuts from the ama and welded the bolts to a square of stainless steel. For some reason captive bolts seem to work much better as I can spin the nuts on by hand, and use an electric screwdriver to tighten them up. I've also made some rubber washers (from an old inner tube) to seal the holes. Now I can put the ama together solidly in a few minutes, rather than struggling for half an hour and sailing with half the bolts a bit loose. Hopefully I won't have to take it apart all summer but it's great to have a connection I can trust.