simple amas for canoe-tri

[nwguy]

My ladder sections were set up that way for strength, and for height. Yes they twisted, but they rode over swells nicely that way. In fact with my last (foiling) tri, I converted the amas to twist similarly, and used bunjie cord to modulate the twist. This can be seen here:

Ladders are underrated for trimaran use. They're great! Light, strong and pretty corrosion resistant. Here are some pictures of ladder use on my tris:

These were the most comfortable seats I've ever sat in on a sailboat.

 

[rnlock]

For a torsionally stiffer ama, one could securely fasten plywood to the top and the bottom of the ladder. Gluing would be best, I think, but gluing to aluminum is tricky. For even more torsional stiffness, the plywood could be put on with the grain at +/- 45 degrees.

 

[nwguy]

Gluing to aluminum isn't that difficult. When using epoxy, you just need to wet sand the aluminum with epoxy first to prevent it from oxidizing. It works very well.