Small canoe as a dinghy?

[Levi Verwoest]

Does anybody know of plans for a small outrigger canoe? 9ft or shorter as that is as big as I can easily fit on deck. I live on a Hinemoa, when not sailing other peoples boats.

I have seen photos of various canoes, but all seem to be at least 12ft long. The only short outrigger canoes I have seen were dugouts in Indonesia and Vanuatu, and they all weighed upwards of 100lbs

My previous dinghy was a single sheet ply rowboat. It worked, that is about all I can say in its favour.

Last year I built the Wa'apa'a design of Gary Dierking. Despite being able to become two 8' sections (for stowage) it was way to much canoe for everyday use. And a bit of a pain to set up each time.

It is now a decoration on Middle Percy Island.

Two months ago I built a 2.7m plywood canoe utilizing leftovers from a job. It works, but could use LOTS of improvement. Too fine in the ends for a start, and the outrigger is still experimental.

So, does anybody know of other short canoes out there? Preferably Ply as it is easy. Not to keen on taking a month to build a beautiful canoe that I am only going to abuse.

[Sasquatch]

Maybe you can find something here and add a outrigger

http://flo-mo.weebly.com/one-sheet-boats.html

[curt goodnight]

Not quite what you are asking but close:  I use a 16'9" old town ABS canoe with a homebuilt light weight platform w/ 2 small floats that clamps to the gunwhales of the canoe.  I'm an avid fisherman so I like the stand up and fish stability- with trolling motor and battery and a bucket that I fill with water it manages the wind well - and I can spread out tackle - clamp on a small fish finder , eat lunch etc....   Naked canoe is 85 lbs so it is not super easy to stow on board my Tiki30 but lots of folk make 40 lb kevlar boats that would be really easy to stow.  

[dave tomlinson]

Just make something simple to suit out of plywood, and stringers, no need for plans, flat bottom and straight sides, even a punt will work.

[Glenn Tieman]

Really cool to see people here using imagination and creativity! I've been using nothing but outrigger canoes as tenders since early discovering how much better they are in every way. One that short will not have much of the potential advantage. My suggestion is to stow it athwartships across the sterns just aft of your platform. Isn't hinemoa about 12' wide? You could carry a 12fter or even longer although you sound decided. One advantage of having an outrigger is you can make the body v shaped which is simplest and takes the ground well (regular patching of the glass only along the keel), just make the two sides using about 1/8" thick plywood, stitch together along the keel, spread the gunnels apart, fillet and glass the keel, and its starting to look like a boat and extremely light. Of course there are a lot of details to improve it from there. The most important is either decking and/or framing all along the gunnels to stiffen it up, and glass the exterior. These are great test beds for learning about hull design, being cheap. I'd like to make one with a chine on each side, so that the bottom is a wide v then the topsides come up roughly straight. This would have more buoyancy low down so could be lower in the keel to gunnel dimension hence stow more compactly. The one in the pic looks pretty good.

[Levi Verwoest]

Thanks all for the replies

Sasquatcch, Yes I have looked at flo-mos work. Absolutely beautiful what he does.

Curt, I like your fender outriggers. Do they provide enough stability to climb in from the water?

Glenn, Yes longer would be better for sure. Stowage becomes the issue. Athwartships in front of the mast would be the only place I could put a longer canoe. My current dinghy storage is aft of the mast running foreandaft. It makes for a great deck locker,yet splits the deck up. My Hinemoa is 4.2m wide

Athwartships aft, I would have to modify my windvane and tillers. Worth thinking about, though that is were my surfboard(10'6") stows

Design wise for my canoe, I went flat bottom to gain volume on the short waterline. I bent the sides around a milk crate since I use them for storage, food, lines, anchors. The issue I had was the chine logs and gunnels made the ply stiffer than I expected, which resulted in a narrower canoe. Next version will be stitch and glue, in an attempt to gain more volume in the ends. Also 3m sheet of bracing ply if I can get it, this version was only 2.7m

In case anyone wants to follow my muddy footprints. I used a 2.7 m sheet of ply , ripped into two 400mm sections, the third section being 400mm minus saw kerf? I didn't bother to measure. Stem post was 50mm wide, stern post 100mm. 50mm rocker fore and aft. And the milk crate was jammed in place as far aft as it wanted to easily go. chines 20mm square, inwales and outwales 10mm by 20mm. The outrigger was 100m diameter, maybe 2m long? I am away working so can't give any measurements for a while.

I do like the V, as then only one spot hits bottom and it will track better. Volume wise on a short length it isn't so good though. Wide V is a good thought.  Cereal box models will be my fun projects for the next few months as I have work on other peoples boats.

Basically I was hoping someone else had done all thinking for me. A bit wishful really as my needs differ from everyone else.

Maybe I just need a bigger boat/canoe to store a bigger canoe/dinghy.

Aloha

Levi

[curt goodnight]

Levi- I actually used a swimming pool float AKA "pool noodles " to make my floats- dense foam tubes with a hole running through them.  That makes it easy to fit them onto PVC pipe,   They come in 1200mm+  lengths .   

they stabilize the canoe fine for boarding directly onto canoe -they do not provide enough floatation to stand on the outrigger itself.