the canoe has been launched for about two months now. I've broken nearly every part of it. I broke the bottom mast step. I broke one of the aka (outrigger) holders on the waka (main hull). I broke the aka-ama mounts. (ama is the outrigger pontoon). I discovered the ama was too small, and did not have enough bouyancy when sailing with the ama on the downwind side. I cracked the forward aka, but strengthened it before it broke through. I broke the top mast step, and the rudder stock.

epoxy is AWESOME. It makes boat building easy. If your peices of wood arn't quite the right size and theres a gap, it doesn't matter. you can thicken the epoxy and fill the gap. you can make the outside of something really durable by reinforcing it with fiberglass, or use it as a glue, by mixing in a power to thicken it. you can buy special powders to do this, but I just use flour. you can thin it down so it soaks into wood, sealing it and protecting it from water - and hardening the surface.

the first step in building the boat is drawing the design onto the plywood. it is critical that the design is drawn correctly, or else how will it be cut correctly?

I started I was just using a tape measure but soon discovered that 1) the (cheap) tape measure was lieing to me, and 2) I was occasionally misreading the marks, and 3) pencil marks are too wide to be really accurate.

It's a boat (model)! [continuing on from part 1]

Unfolding a round 3d shape into a flat one is a tricky problem. A flat panel can be bent up into a cylendar or U shape no trouble, which is perfect for the middle of an outrigger canoe, but the ends must taper in gently. to allow the ends to fold in, you must cut out sections from the end of the panels. these cut-out sections are called "darts".

I am building a boat.

it will be an outrigger canoe, which paddles well, but can also be sailed if your not into paddling

here is a photo of a similar boat I built a few years ago: