It lives.  I have actually been out sailing in my Dierking Wa’apa.  And it was good.

I’ve been building this thing for years.  Hull has been done for a long time and had been out paddling.  My Wife, Daughter and I took it out paddling in cold water on calm days, with no issues.  But once it got windy, it got pretty unruly.

Well the rig and foils have finally made it onto the boat.  Finally.

The rig is a 62 sq ft CLC lug.  I bought the sail from them, and appreciated having specs for all the spars. 

http://www.clcboats.com/ftp/dl/CLC-Northeaster-Dory-Lug-Addendum-web.pdf

No doubt I would have made them much heftier, left to my own devices.  And a professionally made sail seemed like a good place to spend money. The boom, yard and mast are clear, tight, vertical grain doug fir.  Nice wood.  Note to self—tapering with a skill saw is tricky business!  I almost destroyed my expensive mast by not keeping everything fixtured as tightly as I should have.  I rigged it according to the Goat Island Skiff rigging directions

http://storerboatplans.com/GIS/GISRigging

The halyard, downhaul, block and corner lashings are Dyneema, as described on that site.

It has a leeboard to Gary’s design—but a little longer.  The rudder mounts to the rear aka and has a Goat Island Skiff type dagger rudder with bungees.  Like the rest of the boat, the foils, mast step, and seats were drawn in Solidworks, and cut with a friend’s CNC router.  All foils are NACA 0021 in section.  They are really nice, and only let down a little by my still developing epoxy craftsmanship.

So how did it sail?  Like a champ, practically right out the gate.

First of all, the safety ama is the best decision I made on the whole boat.  Let me repeat; safety ama!  I would have capsized MANY times without it.  Safety ama.

Instead, the boat invites safe experimentation of stability in all directions.  Fly the ama for no reason?  No problem.  Stand up to play around with fore aft weight shift.  Go for it.

I screwed in the leeboard bracket for testing, before gobbing it up with epoxy.  I put the pivot 38” behind the mast put it a couple inches ahead of the CE—though all that stuff probably moved around as I played with the rig.  It was a little bit too far back, since the lee board tilts forward a bit to balance well upwind.  But it works like a champ.  The course upwind requires no rudder.  Just tap the handle of the leeboard until it points how you like it.  But it feels a little faster with teensy touch of weather helm.

The rudder system is a dream.  I love this set up.  Kicks up easily, it slides nicely in the trunk and it fits tightly.  Thank you CNC machining!  I put a torque line on the rudder assembly in case it was twisting the ama, but I never saw it pulled tight.

The rig took some fiddling to get it to stay tight.  I have never used Dyneema before.  It is very low stretch, but, as it turns out, it slips on horned (regular) cleats.  The solution was to get 3 wraps on the cleat before tying it off. The downhaul is a blockless 3:1—just a souped up trucker’s knot.  But I was eventually able to get the rig as tight as I want.  The sail is fantastic!  Once I got the halyard set up right, the shape was lovely.

First sail was at a local park with my buddy Jon, who has come over to help with the boat a few times.  Jon was more than a little skeptical of my crazy boat tied together with string.  But as soon as there was wind, he was sold.  It moves so easily, and is so sensitive to adjustment.

Last week, my family went to Lake Shasta for houseboating and wakeboarding.  The family we traveled with have a nice ski boat, girls about the same age.  If you have not tried wake boarding, it is a blast.

I had dozens of sails at Shasta ranging from no wind to gusts that sank the ama (on the trimaran tack) about 10” before I could ease the sheet.  The dynamic stability of the boat when the ama is low is more impressive than expected.  The dramatic loss of stability once the ama gets high is alarming. 

Upwind with the ama flying on proa tack was VERY nice. But my favorite set up was standing up downwind, trimming the boat off fore and aft and relieving the weight on the ama with my feet—like a big longboard.

Here are a couple of phone pics from before I got the rig tension right.  The last one is of my daughter playing around with it in “beach toy” mode.

Congratulation on your launch and first sails, Chris. Also, that was an exemplary write up. Now, when I need an example of a perfect post, I’ll just point people here! 😊

Many thanks on both counts, Michael!

Editor - 25 August 2013 03:25 PM

Congratulation on your launch and first sails, Chris. Also, that was an exemplary write up. Now, when I need an example of a perfect post, I’ll just point people here! 😊

Likewise on all counts, almost as good as being there.

Skip

That lug rig looks fantastic!  Thanks for the background info.

Thanks, guys!

Those first pictures were taken before I figured how to get the rig tight with that slippery dyneema.  Here are some shots that show what that sail shape SHOULD look like.

I’m going to invest in a 4:1 block downhaul to make that easier.

That rig looks really good, congratulations.  There will be some fun days ahead.
I’ve recently added something to the vertically sliding bungy strapped rudder that I think might be a good idea.  I was always concerned that the bungy might wear at the trailing edge where it’s sharp, so I cut a slot in some small diameter PVC pipe and wrapped the bungy around it.  I glued on another scap of pipe to keep it from slipping off.  The rudder actually goes up and down easier now too.

Malolo went sailing last Sunday in Half Moon Bay.  What a day; mid 70s, clear, sunny and mild.  Apologies to all of you freezing your butts off now.

Since I last had her out, I’ve moved the leeboard forward a few inches.  It was only screwed in place for testing, but now its bonded in, and the board is in just the right place now.  I’ve painted and varnished everything for UV protection, and to hide the gross pink foam under the ama glass.  And I got the rigging sorted with COVERED dyneema lines for the halyard, corner lashings, downhaul, etc.  I even invested in blocks for a low friction 4:1 downhaul.  Oh, it gets as tight as you like.

I just can’t say how thrilled I am with how Malolo sails.  It goes to windward like a champ, now that the rigging is dialed in.  The rudder is fantastic.  It tracks like crazy.  It tacks without it, but just a little backwinding spins the boat through tacks.

I beached the boat to shorten the snotter a little, and ran into some friends and their kids.  I took one of the boys out for his first ride on a sailboat, which included some mellow, but still quick ama flying.  His excitement was the highlight of the day.

And yes, the proa tack is better.  Much better.  But there is a lot to be said for the simplicity of the tacker.

Next stop; some breeze!

Gorgeous.  If that is the Half Moon Bay just over the hill from San Fran, nice place to sail.  I rode my bike from there down PCH to Tijuana many years ago.  Just loved that coast all the way south to Santa Cruz.

There would be no problem increasing interest in youth sailing if they all got rides in boats like yours - a lot cooler than being bullied by the Clearasil generation in an El Toro, Sabot or Opti.

—
Bill

Thanks for the update, not normally among the frozen here but was in the low 20’s (F) last night.

Malolo is looking really good, there’s a lot of joy and satisfaction when you get any endeavor dialed in, boats are high, high on the list IMO.

The perforated platforms look just right, having something turn out that well right off the bat doesn’t always happen.

Cheers,
Skip

BTW somehow I missed a detail in your first post on this thread. Your daughter position holding the paddle is dang near perfect, I know a lot of canoe racers that have spent countless hours to achieve the same.

Your boat looks Great!

Thanks, Len!  Its the first boat I’ve built—and needless to say, I’ve learned a lot.  Suffice it to say, it looks a lot better at 10 feet away than it looks up real close.

But wait until you see the next one…

I’m taking it out tomorrow, and I’ll bring the DSLR to capture some of the cool details I’ve worked out.

Best,
Chris

Luomanen - 17 January 2014 10:33 AM

I’m taking it out tomorrow, and I’ll bring the DSLR to capture some of the cool details I’ve worked out.
Best,
Chris

Looking forward to seeing the results - so often the details are the difference between so-so and wow!.

If there are rough spots please don’t feel the need to Photoshop them….  :o)

No wind Saturday.  So Malolo switched into beach toy mode—without the rig, seats and rudder.  Sailing it is the point, but the versatility to become a kid friendly, totally untippable, canoe has its charms.

bang…BANG!

It was a lovely day inside the breakwater at Pillar Point.  Outside, it was raging.  The breakwater was breeched by surf enough times to drive even the most tenacious fishermen away.  I saw one come over that caused a 3 foot breaking wave inside the breakwater.  The sun was shining, oddly, only where we were. All around us was shrouded in fog.  Winds were a bit shifty but fresh from about 5-10 its with a few gusts.

I was excited to get Malolo out in some breeze.  I went on a shake down, took my daughter out, then my wife, criss crossing the harbor..  The boat was going great.  I love the adjustability of Gary’s leeboard design to compensate for trim. I have some more sail tuning to don But it went really well.  My wife asked me if its supposed to make such abrupt, crackling, creaking noises.  I said it was normal, since I had no idea.

I went out for one last run.  And the wind had picked up.  I think I got the downhaul placed better (further back),  I was on the trimaran tack, hiking a bit to keep the ama from burrying.  There are lots of boats, occupied and not, moored inside the breakwater.  I had been weaving through them all day.  I was just going astern of an old CCA era plastic “classic” when it happened.

bang…

The rudder case EXPLODED, shearing in half and falling in the water.  The canoe headed up abruptly and then

BANG!

I hit the sloop at full blast upwind. 

I have thought a few times that Gary Dierking’s boats are a little over built.  This was not one of those times.  Both boats were pretty much unharmed.  But now I had no rudder, though I was able to salvage the bits.

Time to learn to steer with a paddle! 

It was harder than I expected to get the boat to fall off!  I had a bit of a hard time getting it to gybe.  But then I did and had a lovely reach home with surprising control.

When I landed on the beach I told my wife the rudder exploded and I had to steer home with the paddle.  And she said “uh huh, you’re supposed to know how to do that.”

As I took the boat apart I noticed that both of the chocks in front of the forward aka, which are supposed to keep the aka from moving forward, were sheared off.  And lessons were learned.

chris

Chris,

Ouch! S@#§t happens.
‘ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt…

Is it the rudder blade that broke or the rudder case as you state above?
What was the construction method and scantling?
I think there are lessons to be learned for all of us here…

BTW, I already broke BOTH my rudder blades… on the same sailing day… Landing on the beach in the surf was… shall we say “interesting”.

In my case, the rudder case is a standard Prindle aluminum case, seems so far pretty much indestructable.
The blades were mine, bold cypress strips epoxy glued together, with carbon fiber skin… still sheared of right at the bottom of the Prindle rudder case.
The unusual circumstances for me was that I was taking on water and the boat was much heavier than what it should have been; the load on the blades was more than anticipated.

I got a new set built by Phil’s foil (or now CCI, I believe). Cost me an arm and a leg, but I live now in an appartment, and if I do this type of work at home, I get a formal complain from my lovely neighbors…

Good luck on the repair,

Laurent