Articles

Bamboo Boatbuilding

 Boatbuilding  Research

Bamboo is a material with excellent engineering qualities that has so far been useful to boatbuilders mainly as a source for spars. In this article, Richard Emmet proposes processing bamboo for marine plywood.

I held a sample of interior grade bamboo ply in my hand and it took less than two seconds to decide that I could build boats out of this stuff. I could not believe how light it was! And it felt about as stiff as steel. Of course…

30 May 2008     0 comments.

Teh Pookie

 New Designs  Proas

Back to the Future. A collaboration with Jim Shanahan.

Tepukai are singularly amazing proas from the Santa Cruz Islands that take the usual South Pacific parsimony with building materials to the nth degree. The boats stretch out over the water’s surface like a gigantic water spider, covering the most area with the minimum mass. Tepukai employ slender, submersible wave-piercing hulls, centrally located mass for low pitching moments,…

Pookie inflatable proa

16 May 2008     0 comments.