|  Posted on November 24th,2011 As I have noted before,one of the biggest issues I have found with the skin-on-frame outrigger canoe AL DEMANY CHIMAN is that the ama isn’t working out. The shape is a bit off and it ships too much water. Having completed a number of smaller maintenance items since calling an end to the season,I have begin the winter’s major project:redesigning and rebuilding the ama.
My first step was last night. I unscrewed the “sheer clamps”and the pulled off the skin. What I found was a bit distressing,if not wholly unexpected:there has been water trapped beneath the skin and the frame doing what water will do.  You can see that dark area where the oil I put on the bow piece didn’t help (or wasn’t enough). The part above that was quite wet,and that is from rain somehow getting in (or,forbid,leftover from a month ago –shudder). The line where the skin met the bow piece is distressingly evident,though this is more mildew. The bigger issue here is that the two planks that make up that piece have separated (note the slight hitch in the “sheerline”). The afte end is better off,but has a few issues of it’s own.  So this leaves me with the question of how to proceed from here,as I have to approach this project with an additional variable. Factors I am thinking about are: - I need to reconstruct the ama so that it does not ship water
- I want to preserve the skin-on-frame look as much as possible
- It is unlikely that,with the skin-on-frame medium,I can keep all water out
- If I make the ama a good deal more watertight,but not 100% so,I’ll end up with more of the issues noted above
- A new ama that is fully watertight and water-protected may not go as well with the rest of the boat
A bit of a quandary,eh? My current thinking is to unlash the frame,coat every inside surface with the same two-part polyurethane that coats the skin,partially relash,add foam to fill the inside,and reskin the ama. My guess is that this approach leaves some vulnerability to water damage,but hopefully holds it off a good bit. Any other ideas or approaches you all would recommend? Please comment below. Many thanks, Posted on October 26th,2011 On Sunday afternoon I took AL DEMANY CHIMAN out for probably the last time this season. It was a stunning Fall day and there were only a few other folks out with me on the Patuxent River. There were some birds about and a couple fish jumping,but,for the most part,things were quiet and autumnal. As I put the boat back on the car and drove home I reflected on what a great boating season it has been. The story of the season was obviously AL DEMANY CHIMAN. This was her first full season in existence and she gave me all I had hoped she would. From the first paddles in May,she continued to prove light and easy to transport. She took the whole family out and did fine (except for the part where we all leaned to starboard) and even carried my boss and colleagues. From there she carried me and five days gear around Muscongus Bay,ME in what will go down as one of my great voyages. This is the adventure she was built for,whether I had articulated it or not,and she served me fabulously. The heat of summer and my desire to complete the sailing rig slowed us some,but when September arrived,AL DEMANY CHIMAN became my social yacht. I had some great outings with friends and,a couple times,with friends and sons. She proved a great draw and a fun boat for talking or for fishing. Throughout all these interactions,I was thrilled with the reception AL DEMANY CHIMAN got. I have been so touched by the clearly sincere compliments she has received. People have been drawn to her and it has been thrilling to see and hear. It will now be a long wait for the Spring… Posted on October 25th,2011 
As I work away on refinements to the sailing rig for my skin-on-frame outrigger sailing canoe AL DEMANY CHIMAN,I wanted to show off a few more details of the rig as it is. I posted a variant of this view before,but I think this is a better picture. It gives a sense of the overall layout and the different rig elements. Here is the steer oar and its chalk. This set-up worked reasonably well,though I might eventually want to put some weight on blade end. 
This view shows the hiking plank and mainsheet leads. 
Finally,some detail on the finished blocks,which I hand made from paduak. 
I can’t wait to get her going again next season. Posted on October 1st,2011 
She’s all ready for show… Posted on September 30th,2011 For the next 24-odd hours Chine bLog is reporting LIVE from the 2011 Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michael’s,MD. As I type on my smart phone,a lovely folk trio is playing in the background while folks eat and mingle. A whole fleet of amazing boats is already here,and I’ll be sharing some in the AM. The biggest news,from our perspective,is that the skin-on-frame outrigger canoe AL DEMANY CHIMAN finally got under sail today. That was the afternoon’s goal and we got it done. As you may recall,“DEMANY”means “sail”,so she has fully taken her name. Results? Well,winds were light,but we completed several tacks and had no catastrophic issues. That said,we have some work to do. The leeboard is not behaving well at all and was minimally useful. Design flaw there. The configuration of steering vs. sheet will also take some getting used to. All told,though,we’ll call it a success. Stay tuned… [UPDATE] The sailing rig did not fair so well during the blustery next day. While still on land showing off her rig,the yard snapped (building flaw) and the mast partner lashing failed (design flaw). Neither was catastrophic,but we’ll need to deal with these issues before we get back on the water under sail. A guy who was next to the rig when it broke looked at me like my brother just died and said a sincere “I’m sorry.”It was a bummer,yes,but I regard the whole boat as an experiment and a learning experience,particularly the sailing rig. I will learn from this and fix the issues and we will be back. This boat CAN sail –we proved that. Posted on September 22nd,2011 
I finished up the spars for the sailing rig on my skin-on-frame outrigger canoe,AL DEMANY CHIMAN today. That meant setting the sail for the first time. Some kinks to work out,but good progress. Posted on September 1st,2011 So much for being more active with Chine bLog this year…but again,my absence often means there is interesting content. I have,indeed,delved into the sailing rig for my skin-on-frame outrigger canoe,AL DEMANY CHIMAN,and have made good progress in recent weeks after stalling for a while. A tour of recent work,if I may:  I have finished sanding the leeboard (which I showed a few months ago) and am in a good place on the bracket (seen here together). The bracket is my own design,and I hope it works.   It clamps onto the gunwale with the board itself on a bolt so it can pivot. I will put leather around the inside faces and will pin the pieces together with some brass rod (under current plan). It is made from laminated offcuts of the white oak ribs. Lord,my Scottish New Englander ancestors must be proud.
  The same oak offcuts went into making the bracket for the steer oar,which will be lashed to a peg on the aft bulkhead. This is about good to go. I like how it came out,although,for its size,it is easily the heaviest thing on the boat. The oar itself is a bit farther out,though I did get assembled at a macro level. Deep Chine bLog fans may recognize the blades as leftovers from my kayak paddle.
Finally. there is the sail itself. I have the spars a good way along,and for kicks –and measurement –I laid everything out on the front lawn the other day. This shot from an upstairs window gives a sense of what it will look like ( if one was a fish 5 feet to port and 10 feet under water behind a screen window). All things considered,I am pretty happy with the recent work and feel optimistic again about getting a sail in before the season closes. Up next,building my own blocks… Posted on July 16th,2011 This is a continuation of the story of my 2011 camp cruise in my skin-on-frame outrigger canoe AL DEMANY CHIMAN (the introductory post and map is here). There were a few items I thought it would be useful to touch upon in summary. Muscongus Bay
Let me start with the area I picked. Simply put,I am not sure why I had never discovered Muscongus Bay before,but it is a total gem. Beautiful islands and waterways,a mix of open and protected passages,and numerous lovely islands. It is a stunning spot. It was some compelling,in its own right,that when I got to Port Clyde and realized I could probably achieve my earlier plan of entering Penobscot Bay and exploring the Mussel Ridge Channel,I decided I’d rather stay in Muscongus and do it better. And I don’t regret that for a moment. This leads me to muse,however:where was everyone?! It was the week of the Fourth of July,weather was amazing,and I ran into three other sets of campers (two on the first night,on a different island,and two using motor boats). I didn’t even see many cruising sailboats! How can people be missing this spot?! It makes no sense. People are missing out! The Maine Island Trail
I want to call out the Maine Island Trail Association again. This organization has created an absolutely first class resource and,in my limited experience,the standard by which water trails should be judged. There are many camp sites reflecting a variety of needs / desires of a party. Those I saw were well-maintained and well-chosen for convenience to the water. Better yet,they are generally spaced well-enough to ensure one can travel a long length of coast or explore an area deeply,without having to get far off the water. There is also a guide book and web site with detailed information on sites and an array of background and safety information. Look,I am clearly not an expert in water trials,but they do fascinate me and I have done some research on some which are closer to home here in DC. The characteristics above seem like what you need in a true water trail:camping all along the trail,a long and/or deep possible voyage,and excellent resources for planning a trip and using the trail. I haven’t seen that elsewhere. The Patuxent Water Trail is close by and certainly covers a lovely stretch of water,but it offers only about three camping spots and those are all in one general area. The Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail [gasp for breath] is really a collection of sites,with a few local trails,none of which have the same kind of water-convenient camping. I was able to find similar smatterings of not-really connected,not really camp-friendly trails in North Carolina. I know it isn’t easy to get trails done like MITA has,especially here in a more developed area. My point is not to criticize these other efforts as much as it is to hold up MITA’s stunning achievement as an example others should try to emulate. We need more trails like Maine’s and there are plenty of other waterways with strong potential. In the meantime,get out on the Maine Island Trail and support MITA! AL DEMANY CHIMAN as a camp cruiser
So,you may ask,how’d the boat do through all this? Overall,I’d say well. In her first heavy use,AL DEMANY CHIMAN proved a good boat for this purpose,though she was not without issues. The good - Head-turning quotient –Oh let me have this one. The fact is that people all along the route took notice of AL DEMANY CHIMAN and we got many compliments. I definitely felt proud paddling around Muscongus Bay in this boat.
- Stability –AL DEMANY CHIMAN proved plenty stable for my needs. With just me and my stuff,she showed no signs of capsize,even when encountering large wakes.
- Dryness –In the whole trip there was only one case where AL DEMANY CHIMAN took water over side,and that was in a close hit by a pretty big lobster boat wake. She rode up over waves,as a skin-on-frame boat should.
- Tracking in calm –The boat has a rocker,so it is not going to track spectacularly,but it wasn’t a problem when it was calm.
- Capacity –I was able to load up the boat with five dry bags,and anchor bag,and bunch of water and still be plenty comfortable. If there had been two along it might have been tighter,but I still think it would have been doable.
- Weight –This skin-on-frame boat definitely lived up to its weight advantages. In general I had to break the boat down (take off the iakos and ama) each night,but I could manage the main canoe hull (wa’a) alone,even on rocky beaches.
- Durability –The skin took a few scratches from shells on the beaches,but none was remotely catastrophic.
- Ease of paddling –See more on my speed below,but,overall,I was able to cover a good deal of ground,er,water,without working abnormally hard.
The bad - The ama –As I referenced in the introductory post,the ama needs a redo. The biggest issue was that,even after some judicious caulking,it still shipped a fair bit of water in any kind of chop,necessitating a trip to shallows for a dump-out. I could not go for any lengthy stretch without a shallow-water bail-out option. The fact is that it is hollow but uses the skin-on-frame medium,which creates a great many ways for water to get in (unlike,say,a strip-planked one). I am going to have to redesign the ama to be either solid (e.g.,with foam) or watertight (e.g.,with gobs of epoxy). I am leaning to the former. A re-working is also necessary because…
- Tracking in a wind –When the breeze comes up,the boat tends to want to pivot such that it is not-quite broadside to the wind. Obviously this makes such passages a bit hard. I believe a good bit of the issue is that the ama rides with its aft end digging into the water too much. I need to re-do the aft iako connection and re-work the aft end of the ama.
My speed
I kept a log of the trip and thus have a record of time and distance. I think my speed was fine. I think the boat has good characteristics in the regard,but with a single paddle,only so much driving force is possible. What was interesting is the consistency across days and distances,pretty much always two-and-change knots: 
Overall,I am extremely pleased with the boat and the trip! Posted on April 26th,2011 Spring is springing here in metro-Washington,DC and the waters will soon be calling the fleet to them. I have been focused on the sailing rig for AL DEMANY CHIMAN,the skin-on-frame outrigger canoe. I gave a hint of this in a prior post. Since then,the sail arrived (yeah!) and it looks great. Its arrival forced me to get going on the spars,which I have done. I have ensured my mast is nice and straight and rounded it off [editor's note:is there a better entry in the "boatbuilding phrases that sound dirty but aren't?" category? Didn't think so. Moving on...] and the boom is glued up and ready for similar treatment. I have built a chock for the steer-oar as well,which I will be fitting soon,I hope. Good progress,all told. Pictures soon. I spent some of Easter afternoon painting the Peace Canoe,PEACE OF THE PUZZLE. I’ll be putting her on the market in short order. If anyone wants a hand-built,18′canoe,please let me know. Posted on March 1st,2011 For those of you that have been following the progress of my skin-on-frame outrigger canoe,AL DEMANY CHIMAN,I thought I’d provide an update. I have gotten a sail-plan more or less in place,working with Todd Bradshaw of “Canoe Rig”fame. 
I have added a boom from the original conception. It is now an Arabian lateen with a boom;please don’t call it a balanced lug. ;^) Unlike the drawing,the sail will not be laced to the boom. I hope it will be faux tanbark. I have also begun work on building pieces of the sailing rig. I have a roughed out take on the leeboard,which I a proud to say uses a bunch of scrap wood I’d been itching to use. I expect it will still look great once sanded. 
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