An extremely cheap, easy to build proa, cat or tri for Okinawa island hopping?

[Mr Efficiency]

Originally Posted by Richard Woods

Many traditional SOF boats used leather as the skin. That's a very tough yet flexible material, still to be bettered by manmade materials. Remember motorbike riders wear "leathers" to help prevent injury when they fall off. They don't use kevlar or other high tech materials

But it's heavy and although I haven't priced a cow skin I suspect it costs much more than a sheet of plywood

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

How to address the problem of joining the hides ? Incidentally, kangaroo leather is thin, light and extraordinarily tough, but think of all the roos that would have to make the supreme sacrifice....

[bruceb]

A fishing tri in Zanzibar- these are common working craft around the middle coast and lakes of east Africa. The water and temps are mild, but these go out in most all weather and are expected to bring back their crew and a load of fish. They are simple, cheap and well proven. Low tech does work. B

[peterAustralia]

Notice something interesting in that boat?

There is only one stay to windward. I assume they take the leeward stay down because it interferes with the sail. Also note where the sail is secured to the bow. They have a gap between the spar and the bow as this allows the yard to be pivoted around the mast with greater ease as the yard is that much shorter.

Lateen sails like this are efficient, but are not able to be handled well with minimal crew. Also on the nearbye island of Madagascar they have similar boats but generally only one outrigger. On Madagascar some boats have this lateen sail, and some others have a sprit sail, kinda hard to explain, it looks weird

http://www.tacking-outrigger.com/madagascar.html

why double outriggers on Africa and single outriggers on Madagascar, maybe tradition, maybe Madagascar has slightly rougher water which favours single outriggers? (double outriggers being more suited to relatively smoother water). Note that I am talking about traditional canoes, not modern high performance trimarans

By the way, I think the originator or this thread is long, long good, if they were serious anyway.

Aside, I started my new rowboat on the weekend. One funny thing, I was spending all this time in the software, adjusting offsets a few millimeters here, a few millimeters there. But when it came to getting the shape right, I just used a batten, secured it in about 4 places, and drew a nice fair curve, So much quicker and less stress than messing about with complicated computer stuff. I was very impressed by how well a batten worked at drawing a very smooth curve.

[BobBill]

Old, tried and proven. Might be the low cost, sturdy boat you need, with some updating, of course. I have been lurking around this thread for a time and it seems a proper boat.

That said, there are alternatives, but not low cost and equally as efficient in open water, perhaps...

[BobBill]

Originally Posted by peterAustralia

something like this

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/09/...ejak/index.htm


but extended by 4 or 5 ft would work
still dont think you could do it for $500
gee an eBirb costs that alone

$3000 maybe.. $500 not really

I think the above craft extended would be about the best value for money boat you are likely to get. If only that be my opinion, and not fact

+1 or the Malibu, which seems simpler overall, but can be easily altered.

[bruceb]

My son took the pic of the Zanzibar tri. According to him, (he is stationed inland in east Africa near lake Malawi), the various "multis" and monos are built out of what ever is available. Planks, plywood, sheet metal, and fabric/skin are combined and all seem to more or less work. In Malawi, $3000 US would build a yacht, so $200-300 seems about right, if not high. I guess the failed designs never return- fishing is a tough life in Africa, like everywhere else. Engines and fuel are very expensive, fuel is often not available, and the profit from fishing is modest, so the sail powered boats are still viable. Tacking or coming about appears to be easy, at least with 3+ man crews. He is going to try to film the drill. I also noticed the single stay, and I am very interested in the details, it really makes our boats seem needlessly complex. B

[BobBill]

Dang, you gotta love it...simple is best and more fun. Am so green/envious.

[peterAustralia]

I just looked up a few solar panels

Probably the most a small tender could take is a 120W system, above that it would take up too much space and affect stability. A 120W system is around 2ft x 2ft in area, weight of 8kg

Note that energy is lost going into the battery, motor efficiecny, propellor efficiency, plus it only works in the way. Thus average power at daytime would only be say 80W. My first boat used a 3hp engine, whats that 2000W, now a rower might give say 300W or power? I really wonder how much speed a solar system can give vs oars and a simple sail.

My guess is that in time more liferafts will progress to a rigid structure, at the expense of using deckspace. Combining a good tender with a cover, floatation to make it a liferaft might be possible. Some may laugh, I think it is a quite reasonable idea