simple amas for canoe-tri

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.

 

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.

 

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.