This canoe is really a mash up of ideas by Gary Dierking and James Brett.  She has a deep asymmetric vaka for leeway prevention and Gary’s aka/ama joints, like T2.  And it has a cambered junk rig with dagger rudders, like Free Radical.  Unlike either, it has a freestanding mast that sits about 14” to windward of the keel, sunk 23” into the hull.  That should be enough for a 20” mast.

To windward is a ventilated plywood deck with simple holes in it that lock the forward dagger rudder, via the tiller extension.  She draws a bit of water, but that means that the rudders can be pulled up just a few inches and the keel is the lowest point on the boat.  I could do the half cases with bungee cords the way Gary has on his most recent boats.  Maybe I’ll sketch that out.

I’m still working on the rig.  My guess is that it probably requires less sail area than a hobie 14 (about 115 sq ft) and more than a laser (about 75 square feet).  But the ease of reefing makes me want to load it up a bit.  I’ll work on drawing a NACA section cambered rig next.

The simplicity and low loads involved could make a really nice little beach boat.  Maybe the vaka splits in half so that its car-top-able.  That would also make it easy for a couple of folks to carry everything onto the beach for launch.

The ama would be machined from foam and glassed in the prototype.  Molds could be taken off of that for the production kit.  Most everything else would be cut from plywood, except the carbon mast which would be a custom part.

It looks stunning gorgeous!!!
I would really like one of those. It looks like a very capable an nice beach-proa. Perfect for some island hopping on the west coast of Sweden (and elsewhere).

I love it!

Johannes.

Thanks Johannes!

That’s exactly what I’m thinking.  A beach launched camp cruiser for one or a daysailer for 2.5 adults.  I am on the fence about putting some self draining footwells between the akas. It gives you someplace to throw things—and the flat floor will accommodate screw in deck hatches.  It might make steering from the aft deck, behind the aka an option for light air, or when you need to get the nose up.  Or maybe there should just a couple of small kayak type hatches on the deck for stowage.  There’s something clean about that.

The rig here measures about 97sq ft.  That’s plenty aggressive, but easily reefed down.  Each reef takes out 20 sq ft.  The aspect ratio of the rig is about 2.5:1

Maybe another version of this could have kick up centerboards at either end to adjust the CLR and an oar for close quarters like Michael’s monoproa schooner.  I’d love to loose the surface piercing foils, but they’re such an attractive solution in so many ways.

chris

I’d love to loose the surface piercing foils, but they’re such an attractive solution in so many ways.

At low speeds i think they do what they are supposed to, but if one wants effortless speed like Jzerro and Madness i believe they are among the first things that has to go.

Very nice renderings!!!

Johannes.

I agree very nice rendering!

You can improve the handling of the surface piercing foils if you cant the bottoms forward. The dynamic pressure of water on the forward part of foil overcomes the tendency to ventilate. Doesn’t do a thing for tendency to pick up weed.

Keep it up, solutions will appear.

cheers,
Skip

A lovely little vessel. I would vote for foot wells considering the title includes “beach cruiser”. The sailing position would be more comfortable and yes, you get a nice place to stow some stuff while sailing. The rig is great.

I am conflicted by the rudders - as are others.

Well, here’s the dagger/rudder version.

Since its a beach cruiser, they have to kick up.  And the plan is to use the Newick/Brown style crush block design.  If they need to self-recover from groundings, it might be possible to control the kick up with bungee cords.  I’ll show more of that later.

What’s new about this design is that although the rudders are 13” on their trailing edge (15” on the leading edge), they only extend 6” below the keel.  I’m not sure if this will cause hydrodynamic interference between the rudders and the canoe body.  The cut away on the rudder blade allows them to rotate 30 degrees towards the keel (when falling off) before they crash.  It also allows the rudders to kick up about 20 degrees.  Hopefully that’s enough to slow the boat without breaking the rudder off. 

I think we’re starting to get somewhere here…

Yes, I think we are starting to get somewhere.

I’m not sure if this will cause hydrodynamic interference between the rudders and the canoe body.

I think we can expect some of that, though less drag than the side mounted rudders, considering splash, wave drag and ventilation issues are removed. Building those nicely shaped holes in the side of the hull would be challenging (for me).

Why can’t the rudder control surface be a small percentage of the overall rudder, like a trim tab or flap on an airplane wing? It would have less drag since the cut out at the top would be proportionally smaller, and maybe lighter?

If it was my boat I’d put the seating back on the tops of the beams - less butt splashing.

Definitely looks promising, for some reason I’d like the rudders moved a little closer to the centerline like a centerboard offset to keep from compromising the keel structure.

Like Michael, i think the seating wants to be on top of the beam. I’m in favor of individual planks, either sandwich panel or t-beam style perhaps loosely tied together to roll or fold up for transport.

Skip

Okay, I’ve moved the dagger rudders to the keel, where God and Dick Newick intended.

Yes, there’s a little more draft.  But that really is the best place to put them.  I’ll do some more noodling on my simplified, bungee powered kick up mechanism.

The deck to windward still needs some work, but at least the helmsman can sit behind the beam and access the tiller nicely.  The deck would be foam between two layers of 1/8” plywood, except for the edges and hand holds, where the sandwich material would be more plywood.

As long as I’m getting the CE far enough to windward to have a neutral helm, this might be a fun little canoe.

chris

Man that’s looking really good! Can’t imagine much of a better way to spend a warm sunny afternoon.

Skip

I think so too, really looking sweet!

I suppose the deck will need some kind of support at the fore and aft ends to the hull (at least it would for me!) .

Thanks for the kudos, gentlemen.

I like the shape of this bridge deck better.  Its 1/2” plywood with stringers.  I resisted the urge to perforate it to be drier and nicer to your butt.  But I’m concerned that its a lot of windage once the ama is flying.

These are just visual studies, but maybe the next step is to design this sucker for realsies. 

chris

Don’t give up completely on side rudders.  I’ve simply never had a ventilation problem and I got rid of the splashing with a sharp leading edge at the waterline and above.

Gary

Gary, what is the profile of your side rudders below the waterline? What speeds have you attained with them so far?

My side rudder plan shape is rectangular.  My canoes can do 12 knots and I don’t know what happens after that.

Gary