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:

I built this boat in my car port during my final year of university in '06. I built it without plans. I just let the boat design it self. I built it with the cheapest materials and paint - and thats just the stuff that I actually paid for. All i wanted was a prototype which lasted the summer, since then i've given it away and it's still in use!

now it is time to apply what I've learn in that boat to a new design, which is more balanced and refined but maintains the same simplicity and economy.

And, I want to open source the design. normally boat designs are sold, and sometimes they are free. but I don't really expect to make much money from the design anyway so I think it is more interesting to give it away, while encouraging builders to contribute thier improvements back into the design, which I will maintain.

this is the design so far:

so far, I have thought hard about how will go about construction the various parts of the boat and constructed a cardboard scale model of the main hull (waka). my aim the the main hull it to create a hull shape with maximum efficency and elegance with a minimum of wood and glue. my plan is to cut out the shape as a flat sheet and then bend it up into a boat shape (with the help of some jigs) and glue the joins together with epoxy and fiberglass. then, i will install bulkheads, which will give the boat strength and allow me to remove the jigs, so that i can glue on a deck. when completed, the structure of the boat should resemble that of bamboo. hollow inside with a thin wall and occasional cross-sectional nodes (bulkheads). it should be both strong and light.

after i assembled the model and got all the parts fitting just right i flattened it all out and took this photo:

it should be symetricial about the centerline. the reson that it isn't is because I couldn't calculate what shape to cut the ends before assembling it, so I just cut the ones I knew, and then cut the rest to fit as I assembled the model. I will use this picture to assemble a second, more accurate model at a larger scale.