First off, here are a couple pictures I got from Michael (He’s the guy allowing me to store the canoe in front of his house). He saw us out sailing on Sunday, and took the time to take some picutes. He even did some editing on a couple of them. I’m really excited to have them, and wanted to share them here. These are from the maiden “sailing” voyage of the Holole’a. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Thanks, Michael! (Michael is an amazing aritst, and you can see some of his work here.)
Eric, Mike, and Kaile
Cool effect.
Timeless
On to the repairs… Fixing the mast step turned out to be relatively simple. The mast step base popped off because I hadn’t really attached it very well… I wanted to be sure I could remove it if things didn’t line up properly. Placement was good, and it was seeming to hold just fine, so I pushed it a little too hard… The actual base, is merely a PVC end cap affixed to the deck. Originally, I just scuffed it up and glued it down with 5-min epoxy… Not so strong. This time, I drilled a hole in the middle of it (to fill with epoxy), and also glassed around the base and up the sides with a couple layers of glass, matting and epoxy resin. The additional glassing should prevent any future “popping off”…
Mast step base glassed in
Note the hole and the flange of glass around the cup.
While I had a batch of epoxy mixed up, I went ahead and reinforced the cracked mast step. Jay said he’s going to hook me up with a good one (ie. professionally done by an expert – not crooked, off center, and kinda gooned up like mine…), but I figured I would try and repair this one, too, since I had the epoxy and glass available…
This piece straps to the front wai (cross brace) above the base cup.
Another view. I did the repair out on the beach by the boat...
While I was taking pics of my handiwork, I thought I’d snap a couple pictures of the paddles I made…
My steering blades
The first one I made was the wood one. The shaft is made of tiger wood (VERY dense and HEAVY) I had left over from a deck railing project, and the blade is made of monkey pod I had laying around in the garage. This paddle was a lot of work to shape (by hand with a bench plane and a spoke shave…), and I think it came out really well. It’s VERY heavy, but it’s also VERY effective.
Wooden blade
The second one I made was the carbon fiber one. The shaft is actually the top of an old carbon windsurfer mast, and the blade is shaped from 3/8″ foam with 3 layers of 5-6oz carbon fiber on each side. I made the “T” top out of a scrap piece of mango wood I had in the garage. The blade itself is HUGE. It’s 13 1/2 inches wide at the widest point, and almost 27″ tall. If you notice in the pictures at the top, I don’t even have it all the way in the water to steer. When it’s windier, or while I’m surfing, I can drop it lower for more effectiveness, and effectiveness is something it’s definitely not lacking. I think I could steer the Titanic with that thing!
Here is the blade
Here is the T top
Next weekend we will be in Waikiki, but the following weekend, I hope to get back out sailing. The goal is to put a GoPro on the top of the mast and film from above…
A hui hoe.