Today I pulled the Whaleback Proa out of the water for the season.  It motored very nicely along the river to the boat launch. 

The cabin has water coming in, which I believe is seeping through the hull bottom, through a crack in the fiberglass.  There was maybe 2 or 3 gallons over a period of a few weeks.  It might have been from rain but it was dark brown which makes be think it came through wood.  There was a crack in the fiberglass on one side, which might have been the problem.  Or the problem might have been the mast step shaft vent, which might have gotten burst by ice.  I would say the hull was in pretty good shape for having been encased in ice and under water in the river for a few months. 

The outrigger hull was waterlogged on one end.  I had two hatches built in to the outrigger hull, but the forward and aft sections were closed in permanently.  There was several gallons of water in the forward section.  It was too heavy to carry, so I dragged it over to a dumpster and cut it up with a bow saw, and tossed the pieces in the dumpster.  For the most part the lamination was good, adhered to the wood.  I did not see the leak, maybe I hit something and broke through the glass.

Next time I make an outrigger hull I will cover every part with epoxy inside and out and not leave any permanently sealed areas.  There should be drainage through the sections to somewhere where you can pump out the water.  I thought I was making buoyancy chambers, but one of them turned out to be a water tank I could not empty.

I’m not sure what I will do with the main hull.  It is quite dirty and I believe there is mold inside.  I may cut it up and throw it away. 

Thoughts on the design:  I built everything heavy duty and oversize.  It was klunky.  I would not do that again, I would try to get by as light as possible.  But you have to learn what works and what breaks so this was a good learning experience.  No more sharpies, either vee hulls or round bottoms for me.  I never got to sail it, I never put together a mast and sail that was ready for the big lake.  The steering system was pretty bad, the tiller system was the real problem.  I didn’t really think out the piloting position and tiller.  Next time the steering system will be an important part of the design, not an afterthought.

I may or may not build another proa.  I’m not sure I want to start another boatbuilding project. If I get another boat it will probably be a kayak, or maybe an inflatable.  I like building things though, who knows.  I really like the KiaKia design, and I already have most of the parts, which I can salvage off of the Whaleback.

  Hi Paul, I think there’s still light at the end of the tunnel…...
why cut up the vaka? let it dry, inspect it properly cut and replace dead ply.
you could even put on a new bottom, much easier then building a new hull.
  ama? lash on a 10 inch pvc pipe, and just go. what ever happens you will enjoy the boat.
then you could use it as a testing ground for different rigs, new ideas…....
  before you pull out the chainsaw think about a dozen times what you’re doing.
many old plywood boats need new bottoms and other sections of rotten ply to be changed,
people do it because it’s easy. think about it. that’s plywoods great advantage!!!
  best of luck.
      rael

Hi skyla4k,
sad news indeed. You know best of course but if you have doubts as to which way to go, it might be wise to leave your options open till you know for sure. Or have a better idea at least. “When in doubt, do nought” sort of thing.

You mentioned you would change the hull shape away from a flat bottomed sharpie in any case. Could you elaborate on that a little for me?

Cheers,
James

I will give it some time before scrapping it out.

I prefer round or vee hulls mainly from a performance point of view.  You can get a lot of load carrying capability with a sharpie hull, but I prefer speed.

Hi Paul,
Greetings from Vancouver Island. Please think twice about scraping your nice project. Lots of sweat in it! Just the cool windows alone are reason enough not to junk it.

Regarding the speed thing…for that length of boat…with an interior space… it doesn’t matter too much what the bottom shape is. It’s going to end up a displacement hull (slow and easy…relaxing and sweet) no matter what you do to it.

Your choice of a flat bottom was the right one for that size. Nothing else would have given you the load carrying numbers that you needed. A rounded bottom would have made little or no speed difference.

So the GOOD NEWS is : )  ...  It is still a great little boat and a BIG achievement that you can be proud off. And you could have some great, relaxed times on a vessel like that. A small boat…a small outboard…some sunshine…
It all adds up to some sweet summer days.

Just let it hibernate for the winter. 
You KNOW boat fever is going to hit you bad in the spring…and you’ll be so far ahead of the game when it does.

All the best and Cheers for now,
claudio

All:

Paul’s Whaleback proa is an example of exactly what reliably happens when wood hulls get saturated with freshwater and go through freeze/thaw cycles.  They may look okay on surface inspection, but they never are.  I posted on this topic a while ago.  I’ve seen this happen over and over - and I live in a freshwater part of Canada that sees -30 plus degrees every winter (at that temp Celsius and Fahrenheit are roughly equal).

Paul’s lessons learned should be valued - and he has reached some pretty hard-earned conclusions.  I respect what he’s learned - and most of us building boats learned the same lessons through scar tissue and repeating the same mistakes.

Building boats as light as possible while strong enough for the job is critical.  Fast is good - it gives a lot more options to the operator.  Refining controls and the iterative process of tuning is really, really important.  I’m sure Paul has a newfound appreciation for Matt Layton’s designs and build execution - and the sophistication of good design that isn’t apparent from the first glance.

I’d like to encourage Paul to move forward, and make use of his newfound wisdom - the next boat build will be better, faster, safer and get done much quicker.  It would be a shame for all that experience and effort to be left unused.  Many of the parts and expense of a new boat are already available and paid for. 

—
Bill in Ottawa

Taking Bill’s (and Paul’s) thoughts and still yet retrieving something from the Whaleback as Claudio and others have suggested in order to be sailing with minimal effort next spring, consider this.

Well, perhaps I’d be better to phrase it as a question. Would it make any sense to turn the Whaleback into a podcat for the interim by building two (say) 24’ ama’s and suspending the Whaleback above the water? There is not a lot of money or materials involved and perhaps not a lot of hours involved either.

The structural and seaworthy issues that plague Whaleback now would not be so critical. If the layout proved to be to Paul’s satisfaction, he could build another lighter pod the following season . . . . or not, of course.