CHAPTER 1

The Ulua

"Ulua" is the Hawaiian term for the Giant Trevally fish found in deep, rockywater and off some beaches of the Pacific islands.

The Ulua canoe is based on Hawaiian outrigger canoe design. The channels betweenthe Hawaiian islands are extremely rough and more often than not have strongtrade winds blowing. This fact, along with the very small number of naturalharbors, provided the breeding ground for a very special canoe. The ability tomaintain control during high-surf landings was the most important factor intheir design.

The Ulua design broadly resembles the classic Hawaiian canoe, with somedifferences. The round bottom, which is important in the surf, performs poorlywhen sailed to windward. I've added a pivoting leeboard for lateral resistancethat can be retracted when paddling or when landing in surf. A steering oar orrudder can be used instead of the traditional paddlefor steering. The Ulua hull has a little more "V" in the hull than a traditionalHawaiian model, and this improves its speed and windward sailing ability.

Watertight bulkheads in each end of the hull provide reserve buoyancy in theevent of damage or capsize. Additional reserve buoyancy can be built in underthe two seats in the form of foam blocks or hollow storage compartments. The amacan be either solid foam covered with fiberglass, or hollow and strip planked,with foam or plastic bottles inside for emergency flotation. The large ama is ofsufficient size to support cargo stored on the iakos (outrigger booms) alongwith a crew member on the hiking seat.

A hiking seat enables the crew or helmsperson to shift their weight outboard ofthe narrow hull's gunwale to balance the force of the sail. It can consist of aslatted wooden seat or fabric stretched on a frame. The outboard edge issupported by a fore and aft pole resting on the iakos, while the inboard edgerests on the gunwale. At least one hiking seat must be fitted on the ama side ofthe hull, but an additional seat can be installed on the opposite side, supported by extended iakos.

The sailing rig shown is of a modern Hawaiian type. The availability offiberglass windsurfing masts allows for a very simple lightweight plug-in rigthat can be lowered entirely while at sea and stowed on the iakos. A brailingline folds the boom and sail up against the mast for quick furling and thusavoids dumping the sail onto the crew.

The Ulua can be paddled, sailed, surfed, or powered by a two-horsepower outboardmotor. This canoe is capable of extended coastal expeditions and can be cartopped to your favorite launching spot or carried on its side on a trailer withthe ama up in the air.

The hull can be stretched to a greater length by increasing the spacing betweenthe molds before the planking begins. You can safely increase the hull length by150 percent without any changes to the structure.

While the Ulua is an excellent sailing canoe, the shape of the hull is optimizedfor its ability to turn quickly while tacking. For long-distance paddling, footpedals, like those used in sea kayaks, can be connected with small lines to thesailing rudder. Steering with your feet allows for stronger paddling withoutusing energy to keep the canoe on a straight course.

MATERIALS FOR BUILDING THE ULUA

Hull

• 60 planks of ¼" × ¾" × 18.5' (6mm × 19mm × 5700mm)

• Enough planks for the hull and end decks can be ripped from 5 pieces oftimber, 5 ½" × ¾" × 18.5' (140mm × 19mm × 5.7m), assuming the use of a thin kerfcircular saw blade.

Molds

• 2 sheets of ½" (12mm) or thicker plywood or particle board

Stems

• 2 pieces of 1" × 4" × 30" (25mm × 100mm × 750mm). These can be of cedar or anyother softwood.

Gunwales

• 4 pieces of 3/8" × 1" × 18.5' (10mm × 40mm × 5700mm). Harder woods like mahoganyor ash are more durable.

Bulkheads and Ring Frame

• 3 pieces of 16" × 18" × 3/16 or ¼" (400mm × 450mm × 4 or 6mm) plywood. Bulkheadscan be strip composite.

Seats

• 2 pieces of ¾" × 10" × 18" (19mm × 250mm × 450mm). The seats can be of plywoodor solid timber.

Iakos

• 10 pieces of 5/16" × 2" × 6'8" (8mm × 60mm × 2000mm)

Fore and Aft Decks

• 2 pieces of 18" × 3'8", 3/16" or ¼" (450mm × 1100mm, 4 or 6mm plywood

• OR: 30 strips of 3/16" × ¾" × 44" (4 to 6mm × 19mm × 1100mm) plywood for stripdecks

Epoxy Resin

• 3 1-gallon (4-liter) kits of resin and hardener

• Bag of glue powder

• Bag of fairing powder

Fiberglass

• 4 pieces of 6-ounce (200-gram) 18.5' × 26" (6000mm × 650mm) for hull

• 4 pieces of glass for top and bottom of strip deck, 18" × 44" (450mm × 1100mm)

• Miscellaneous strips for glassing in bulkheads

• 2 pieces of 10-ounce (330-gram), 16' × 16" (5000mm × 400mm) for ama, or:

• 4 pieces of 6-ounce (200-gram) fiberglass cloth

Ama

• 2 pieces of 4" × 8" × 12'8" (100mm × 200mm × 4000mm) blue Styrofoam (can use2" [50mm] foam and glue layers together) ½ sheet; 1/8" or 3/16 (3mm or 4mm) plywood forshear web

APPROXIMATE TIME AND COST FOR BUILDING THE ULUA

The amount of time that it takes to complete a sailing Ulua is widely variableand reflects the personal standards and skill of the individual builder. Gettingstarted can seem slow, with little to look at that resembles a canoe, but onceplanking commences, the hull will take shape rapidly. The average time to set up,plank, and fiberglass a bare hull is about 100 hours. The total time to completea ready to sail Ulua is a minimum of 300 hours.

The minimum cost of materials is about U.S. $1,200. Half of this amount is forthe epoxy resin and fiberglass. The sailing rig can be home made with a plastictarp sail and a used Windsurfer mast for a very low cost, or you can have a sailmaker provide a sail for a few hundred dollars more. Outrigger sailing canoeswill perform exceptionally well without expensive materials or hardware.

CHAPTER 2

The T2

The T2 is based on the designs of Micronesian sailing canoes. The T2 hull mostlyresembles canoes found in the Marshall Islands and nearby Kiribati and, at 18'(5.4m), would be used primarily for fishing and transportation within an atolllagoon. The hull is a deep, rounded "V" with an asymmetric shape and isconstructed with the strip-composite method. Each end of the hull is identicaland the T2 is sailed with either end as the bow. The ama is always kept on thewindward side and can be flown above the water to reduce drag.

The T2 can be sailed with either the classic Oceanic lateen rig or amodification of a rig developed by Euell Gibbons (widely known for his books ongathering wild foods) in the 1950s. The Oceanic lateen rig is very old but stillvery powerful. If you are an experienced sailor, you will have to develop somenew instincts when handling it. It is very forgiving of incorrect sheetingangles and will maintain its power at a point where a more conventional rigwould have stalled. The Gibbons rig shown in Figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-11 iscompletely untraditional with its roots in windsurfing and will appeal to thesailor who is interested in high speed. My version of the Gibbons rig is stillexperimental, and you won't see many of them around, but it is worth the timeand effort to build one if you enjoy developing new technology.

The T2 is a sport canoe for one or two people and is not designed to carry heavyloads. The cockpit has a floor above the waterline, which allows it to be self-draining. Watertight bulkheads in each end, combined with the sealed area belowthe cockpit, allow the T2 to be sailed in extreme conditions without any concernfor how much water enters. Seating is provided on a platform over the windwardside, supported by the iakos. Because you will always be sitting on the windwardside, there is no need to change sides when changing direction during a shunt.A steering oar is the recommended way to steer and can be used to scull thecanoe when becalmed. The fore and aft position of crew weight has a great effecton the steering and can be used to avoid use of the steering oar on all pointsof sail except for a broad reach or run.

The asymmetric, deep "V" hull shape requires no foils or leeboard for lateralresistance. The lack of underwater foils reduces the windward performance onlymarginally and can give you great confidence when you are sailing fast inshallow water. The asymmetric hull helps to counteract the forces of the long-boomedlateen sail and the ama drag that try to turn the canoe into the wind.

I've made a couple of modifications from traditional Micronesian design. Mostshunting rigs require that the mast rake forward in the direction of travel inorder to balance the sail force with the underwater shape. This rig requiresrunning backstays to control the amount of mast rake. The T2 uses strongbungee cords to take up the slack inthe backstays as the mast changes rake during the shunting. The bungee cords tryto hold the mast at its vertical center point. Pulling the sail toward the bowstretches the bungee cord until a stopper ball on the backstay runs into theblock attached to the stern. All of this means that the backstays areessentially selftending, and that to shunt, all you have to do is pull the sailto the opposite end of the hull.

MATERIALS FOR BUILDING THE T2

Hull

• 70 planks of ¼" × ¾ x 18.5' (6mm × 19mm × 5700mm)

• Enough planks for the hull; end decks can be ripped from 6 pieces of timber,5 ½" × ¾ × 18.5' (140mm × 19mm × 5700mm), assuming the use of a thin kerf circularsaw blade.

• 2 sheets of ½" (12mm) or thicker plywood or particle board

Stems

• 2 pieces of 1" × 4" × 38" (25mm × 100mm × 950mm) clear, soft timber rippedinto thin slices

Gunwales

• Inwale: 2 pieces of ½" × 1" × 18.5' (12mm × 25mm × 5700mm)

• Outwale: 2 pieces of ¾" × 1" × 12.8' (19mm × 25mm × 3900mm)

• Gunwales are best made of timber that is heavier and more durable than cedar.

Bulkheads, End Decks, and Cockpit Floor

• All of these parts can be made from one sheet of ¼" (6mm) plywood.

Hiking Seat

• 4 pieces of ¾" × 5 ½" × 6' (19mm × 140mm × 1800mm). A soft, lightweight woodlike cedar or redwood can be left bare for nonslip seating.

Iakos

• 10 pieces of 5/16" × 23/8 × 9' (8mm × 60mm × 2700mm) fir, spruce, or pine

• OR: 2 pieces of 2" to 2¼" (50 to 55mm) aluminum tubing with minimum 3/32 (2mm)wall thickness. Some alloys are stiffer than others; T6 is best.

Epoxy Resin

• 3 each, 1-gallon (4-liter) kits

• Bag of glue powder

• Bag of fairing powder

Fiberglass

• 4 pieces of 6-ounce (200-gram), 18.5' × 32" (6000mm × 800mm) for hull

• 4 pieces of glass for top and bottom of strip deck, 16" × 56" (400mm × 1400mm)

• Miscellaneous strips for glassing in bulkheads

• 2 pieces of 10-ounce (330 gram), 13' × 16" (3900mm × 400mm) for ama

• OR: 4 pieces of 6-ounce (200-gram) fiberglass cloth

Ama

• 2 pieces of 4" × 8" × 12'8" (100mm × 200mm × 4000mm) blue Styrofoam (can use2" [50mm] foam and glue layers together) sheet; 1/8" or 3/16" (3 or 4mm) plywood forshear web

APPROXIMATE TIME AND COST FOR BUILDING THE T2

The amount of time that it takes to complete a T2 is widely variable andreflects the personal standards and skill of the individual builder. The averagetime to set up, plank, and fiberglass a bare hull is about 100 hours. The totaltime to complete a ready-to-sail T2 is a minimum of 300 hours.

The minimum cost of materials is about U.S. $1,200. Half of this amount is forthe epoxy resin and fiberglass. The ability to "scrounge" used or discardedbuilding materials, hardware, or sails can greatly reduce the cost of thefinished canoe.

CHAPTER 3

The Wa'apa

In the late 1800s, when sawn lumber began to appear in Hawaii and other Pacificislands, the local canoe builders immediately saw its use as an easier way tobuild canoes. While perhaps slightly less efficient than round-bottomed shapes,a flat-bottomed, dory-shaped hull has now become the standard working canoe seenin many places throughout the Pacific. The first models were simply built ofthree wide planks and came to be known as "three-board canoes," or "wa'apa" inHawaiian.

I built a 16-footer in the 1970s that unbolted in the center for easier stowageonboard my cruising trimaran. It proved to be a useful dinghy and a fun sailerfor exploring. This design is similar in shape to that one, but it allows for acenter section to be added, which stretches the boat to 24'. The 24-footer seatsfour crew members and can be sailed as a tacking outrigger or a shunting proa.The tacking configuration uses hiking seats on both sides of the hull, whereasthe shunting version carries them only on the ama (windward) side of the hull.

The Wa'apa can be built as a one piece hull if you choose, but one of its primeadvantages is that no hull or ama section is longer than 8' (2.4m). It can bebuilt, stored, and transported in a small space. The three-section main hull anda two-piece plywood ama require only six sheets of ¼" (6mm) plywood. The hullsides and ama can be built with 3/16" (4mm) plywood to save weight.

Waterline length is a wonderful thing, and it is cheap to build when hull beamand depth remain the same. This design is extremely versatile in that manydifferent options can be included with the basic design. It can be sailed as atacking outrigger, where the ama runs either on the windward or lee ward side,or as a shunting proa, where the ama is always kepton the windward side.

RIG CHOICE

Choosing between the two rigs is difficult and really is a matter of personalchoice. The shunting proa has the potential for greater performance but requiresa more complicated rig. The mast is stayed, requiring two backstays and aweather shroud. Steering is accomplished from either end with a long oar, a pairof dagger boards in the ends, or a pair of kick-up rudders. An endless tack linecontrols the butt of the yard and, when shunting, you simply pull the yard fromone bow to the other without leaving your seat. The butt of the yard can slidealong below the gun-wale of the hull's leeward side.

One of the characteristics of the lateen or crab-claw rig is that the butt ofthe yard wants to swing to windward during a shunt. Keepingthe butt below thegunwale prevents this annoying trait and avoids the necessity of installing aguiding track, or guiding the butt along by hand. The backstays that control thefore-and-aft rake of the mast can be controlled by a bungee cord that tries tohold the mast vertical. Pulling the butt of the yard to either bow will stretchthe bungee cord. A pair of spiller lines or lazy jacks are rigged to depower thesail in squalls and to hold the boom, yard, and sail off of the deck when thesail is lowered with the halyard.

The tacking rig is very simple, with an unstayed windsurfing mast, no halyard,and a spiller/brailing line for brailing the sail up against the mast. This isespecially convenient, as the sail is quickly stowed out of the way of paddlers.The whole rig is easily pulled out and stowed on the iakos. The rig shown inFigure 3-4 uses a straight boom with a loose footed sail. While not as visuallyattractive as a curved boom, this system allows you to reef the sail by simplyrotating the mast and winding the sail up on it. The boom outhaul controllingthe clew of the sail is led forward along the boom to an easily reached cleat.

Long, narrow-beamed canoes are very sensitive to weight distribution. Thelocation of crew members or cargo weight has an effect on the fore-and-aftsailing balance of the canoe. Concentrating weight aft increases the lateralresistance of the hull in that area and will cause lee helm, or the tendency toturn away from the wind. Weight concentrated forward will have the oppositeeffect. Using a fixed rudder aft, or on the iako, instead of an oar, will alsochange the balance. For this reason, in Figure 3-4 I have shown two mast-steplocations for the tacking rig. This will allow you to adjust for differentloading conditions or steering setups.

THE HULL

The hull is a flat-bottomed dory shape, although a dory would have more flare inthe sides. I'm opposed to extreme flare in the sides, as I feel it slows thehull considerably when sailing into waves.

Because each hull section is slightly shorter than a sheet of plywood, no scarfjoints or butt blocks are necessary.

Each hull section is connected to the next with four 5/16" (8mm) stainless-steelbolts. Washers cut from inner tubes or wetsuit material are placed between thehull sections to keep water out of the bolt holes.

The hull sides and decks can be made from either ¼" (6mm) or 3/16" (4mm) plywood.Plywood with five plies is much better than three plies. The bottom panelsshould be ¼" (6mm) to avoid damage when the hull is resting on rocks. It is notnecessary to fiberglass the entire hull if it is built from¼" (6mm) plywood. The prototype was glassed only on the bottom, lapping 2"(50mm) up over the chine. The rest of the hull was painted with water-basedacrylic house paint. Be sure to apply several primer coats and avoid paints thatsay they require no primer.

There are several possible options for the deck layout. The drawings in Figures3-4, 3-5, 3-6, 3-7, and 3-8 show all open hulls, with a watertight bulkhead ateach end for emergency flotation. It is possible to completely deck over eitherof the two end sections, or even all three, with hatches strategically placed sothat you can put your feet into the hatch when paddling. This is a good optionif you are planning to use the canoe in very rough off-shore conditions.