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exhibitions |
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The folding kayak under sails
Folding kayak and sailing?
Since 1980 I have a polyester kayak, which we built ourselves. But this
boat has its limitations.
So I started looking around for a folding kajak.
In the spring of 1999 I had fould a lot of information
after surfing the Internet for three evening, at www.faltboot.org and a lot
of other sites. I had ordered "The complete folding kayaker" by Ralph
Diaz. Now I had to start reading. In the autumn of 1999 I bought a second hand
folding kayak, a Klepper Aerius
Expedition II, with sails.
Since 2000 I have been making several trips, on the river Lahn in Germany, the lake Mälaren
in Sweden and on lakes in Friesland (at Oudega), the
Netherlands.
I wanted to try out sailing and to build an outrigger construction for
that. In the internet I found numerous examples, from amateur builders (for
example Faltbootbasteln) and from
manufacturers.
My idea was to have a relative simple construction, with outriggers made
out of wood, with a flexible connection to the folding kayak. Suitable for one or two persons. Paddling should also be
possible (for one person).
In the summer of 2003 it then was so far, the design sketch was ready
and I could start building.
Folding kayak under sails
The outriggers (“ama”) were built out off maritime quality plywood, according to the "stitch
and glue" method with epoxy resin. They were 190 cm long. On the sides a
wooden list is located, to be able to fix the outriggers well onto the cross
"beams".
The cross beams (“aka”) are fixed onto the ribs. The cross beams
allow through their profile the outriggern some movements.
This flexibility was chosen to lead the forces more even into the (also not
rigid) folding kayak.
The lee boards were made from waterproof plywood. The lee boards
minimise the loss of height when sailing.
The rudder had to be enlarged with an aluminium plate, to be able
to steer the folding kayak better (ok, here I used ty-raps…)
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My folding kayak with the outriggers and the new lee
boards in april 2004 |
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Front view: the outriggers (190 cm length, 30
cm height, 20 cm width) are mounted with wooden
lists. Width over all is 2,70 meter (9 feet). And that without the use of ty-raps… |
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View from rear position, to the left |
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View from rear position, to the right |
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The compass for the direction, and all ropes. But
where is the duck? |
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More comfort than Motel Mondeo… |
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Pictures of the boat on the
water can be found at Faltbootbasteln, under
"Mehrrumpfboote" |
updated 19.02.2005 |
