Canoe to tri?

LOL. Cool shape. I can imagine you prey you don't slide back or forth in that seat or your own butt can act like a guillotine

Can you imagine the crowd slids forward an the next moment the whole bunch talks with thin voices...

 

My GF was wondering if there was a female version?

I'm gonna take a close look at the canoe, it's a flat water 1632 I believe, very unstable with wakes broadside, went swimming the first time out and it hasn't gotten wet since, except for rain. Not at all like my Perception Kayak.

I really have enough irons in the fire right now, but maybe building 2 quick canoes for such fun would be better, $ about the same I'd think. Geees, might as well build Slider......BTW, Ray has that Slider all over the internet, it's hard to search catamaran anything without that popping up, good marketing Ray!

 

It might be a small point -- or even not relevant-- but if you have 2 canoes strapped together doesnt their shape increase drag from the water moving thru the center --sort of a coke bottle design. I thought that was why amas should have a flat side inboard and a round shape outboard?

 

I have seen catamarans with apparently symmetrical hulls and a few with hulls that were significantly flatter on one side. I can't say I remember them all perfectly but I definitely recall one with hulls that were much flatter on their outermost sides. I recall wondering about the logic of this. At the time I concluded it was to provide a lifting profile on the leeward hull when the windward hull was "dry" to reduce leeway, but that's only a theory.

 

Why don't you just get an old hobie cat or prindle cat, narrow the cross tubes to whatever beam you want and replace the trampoline with plywood. Mount the outboard to the aft tube. Then mount a beach chair or lawn chair to the plywood for a seat while under way and you will have a very stable platform to fish off of. I have a friend who did this with a Reynolds 21 catamaran and Jim and his wife cruised all over Southern California including trips to Catalina and the Channel Islands in all kinds of weather. The Reynolds 21 is bigger that what you want. I just suggest this as an example of what can be done.

 

Astute observation of the Prindle 16 cat and to a lesser degree, the Hobie 16, as well.

 

Gentlemen,

Hobies and Prindles have the flat side of the hulls on the outside and the curved side on the inside. This acts as an airfoil for the leeward hull, replacing a centerboard or daggerboard. For this purpose the curved side is never on the outside of the hull, since that would be an extremely poor airfoil which would have lift in the wrong direction - to leeward.

On a cat, one of the early criticisms of the Hobie, that the two hulls fight each other. It is not really true, its just that the windward hull does little to help resist leeway, so it is inefficient but just a fact of life if you want to remove a foil for beach operation.

Ancient Kayaker's theory is exactly correct. The fact that the leeward hull is deeply depressed and the windward hull is "dry" minimizes the apparent inefficiency of the design.

 

So I suspect that two canoes used to make a cat are not an efficient sailing machine. Would leeboards or foils be worth investigating for a more performance oriented type or might it be easier to accept the inefficiency for what it is, a versitle small water craft?

I lean toward the latter, two canoes used to form a cat seem to have a utility function, getting one on the water cheaply for a little fun and say a camping cruiser on lakes and rivers. I guess some daring sole could cover the canoes with canvas skirts with a heavy build and sail to the Bahamas, but that would not be me.

It is what it is.

 

I suggest you make you make a real amma. One about as long as your canoe and give its bottom some rocker. Since it doesn't have to support much weight. it can be quite marrow. I wouldn't go to too much trouble keeping it light. If it weighs between 30 and 50 lbs, it shouldn't hurt anyone's feelings.

I would then add a rudder to the canoe with a yoke and a steering stick. Now you can be seated in the middle of it, where you belong. The rudder should be about one square foot in area or larger and have a kick up blade which can be pulled up, for getting into the shallows.

The engine can be put between the canoe and the amma, mounted on a cross beam, engineered not to twist. Now the engine is in easy reach.

This proposed set up has two disadvantages:

1.) paddling will be awkward, and
2.) the turning radius will be somewhat large.

The second problem can be quickly solved by sticking a paddle down as a lee board on the outside of an intended turn.

In exchange for all this trouble you will have:

1.) a minimally modified canoe, which can be sold latter, separately, and
2.) a much more seaworthy craft than you started out with. Because the outboard is moved so far in from the stern and sits between the canoe and the amma, its weight helps stabilize the craft and is far less likely to ever get dunked.

 

If you want a sailing machine, no matter what you build, you have to have a centerboard, daggerboard, or leeboard to allow the boat to go to windward. the boat without somekind of board won't even go across the wind usefully. and dont settle for a part time paddle, it won't be big enough and you can't keep it working all the time like is required.

If you don't at least use a leeboard, forget the idea of sailing.

 

Everything boating has compromises. The two kayaks may have more water surface drag, BUT your weight carrying is also a lot more than what an amma can offer. Sorry, make that a 'real amma'

The two triyaks I used offers width for stability as well as space - something always in demand if you don't want to sit in the water with your butt when you're out there. Comfort counts HIGH in any kind of vessel, the weather is not always just nice.

I built a little tri before, and I prefer the cat setup over it. It just works nicer for me.

 

Thanks for the reminder Fannie, I don't think I ever used my kayak without getting wet. My canoe always seems to get a little water inside as well, but I can stay dry. The water may come from my shoes from entry as you can't always step off the shore.

I think I need something dryer after all. A couple stablizers as a tri might be better or just starting from scratch to get a better craft instead of trying to build a silk purse....

 

I thought we were discussing a power boat here.

The paddle Idea was just to make it turn tighter. Under power.

 

Personally, I think you just need a Jon boat. At least a square stern canoe. I'd watch Craig's List. Some square stern canoes are pretty big and wide and you could probably do away with the amas. In the meantime, moving the amas back should help. Are you sure you have the motor on the best side? Because of prop walk, putting the motor on one side will work better than putting it on the other.

 

Sorry about the sailboat bias, I'll try to follow closer.

If you are doing a power boat and a motor that steers why do you need anything else? The cat/canoe idea will work perfectly for extra deck and very high stability. No need to worry about keels, boards, etc. There was canoe/ sailing tri which used an old busted ladder as a crossarm. Worked great, should work here - might be excessive except it would be a great way to support a deck between the hulls. A single sheet of plywood should be enough. Put your lawn chair, umbrella, and cooler on the deck and have fun. Actually I would suggest an old 16' sail boat (cat) as the start (my personal choice would be a Nacra 5.2) since the hulls would be lighter and more streamlined for higher speed with a small motor. You would have transoms with rudder fittings if you wanted really good control of direction. Actually there was a set of Tornado hulls on Craigslist in Florida a couple of days ago and a set in South Carolina (needed repair) for $300. Lots of the old sailboats are being thrown away.

Getting back to the original request. I watched a man heading out of the harbor in Hawaii going fishing with a canoe stabilized by a single outrigger. This was obviously all hand built (very narrow main hull, no deck), he had a 2-3HP motor on the aft aka which was just in front of his seating position. There was a huge pile of nets in the boat towards the front. He was exiting the harbor in a channel which had about 3' rolling waves, in perfect control, not really affected by the waves, and moving faster than a 30+' sport fisherman (which was rolling 20 degrees before it even reached open ocean). Obviously he was going to set or throw nets from the "canoe" counting on the stability of the outrigger. You probably can tell that I was much more impressed with the canoe than the sport fisher.