Where I live we have many large remote reservoirs and little population recreating on them. Having recovered a fiberglass canoe from friends to whom I loaned it for their children to enjoy on their own private pond........ In a "trashed condition" due to failure to secure it against the violent winds we have here, I decided a year or so ago to knock together a low budget simple sailing trimaran from it.
I chopped the stern to make a square stern out of it, and removed the remains of the gunnels that had been ripped off as it bounced across the rocky prairie. I will have to patch a number of impact damaged places in the hull....no big deal.
I toyed with a number of ideas for building the outriggers (amas) from stitch and glue ply or skin on frame, but ultimately I discovered that derelict beach cats are available cheaply, but the nearest was about 850km away........ in a direction I really had no reason to go. A few weeks ago however I discovered one on a possible path to visit family. It was far out of my way, but I always take round about routes through wild and interesting places, and this fit in well with a trip I've been wanting to make for years. A Hobie 14 with no mast or sail for $100. Hobie would not have been my #1 choice, but is completely usable.
Problem #1, my Subaru Outback rack is pathetic to say the least. In my 2010, they made elegant swing across bars......... elegant but largely useless IMHO, as they are too close together......... about 30" apart, incorporate no real tiedown capability, and have a very marginal load capacity. Using rivnuts I made a rear set of brackets that extend upward from the crack where the rear hatch meets the roof.......... a fairly wide gap. 3 rivnuts driven inward on each side longitudinally, give me an array of 3 1/4" (6mm) bolts on each side supporting these brackets. Two rivnuts driven straight down through the roof aft of the rear rack support on each side, hold each of two angle brackets that give fore and aft stiffness to the brackets. All of these rivnuts are in identical patterns. Each bracket has 5 1/4" bolts holding it.......... very very strong. The top of these brackets was drilled to take a Yakima roof rack bracket to hold a 1" pipe cross bar......... and also has an array of screw holes to allow a piece of lumber to be used instead. The Yakima bar matches up in height to the center of the existing racks.
This has long needed to be done, as I often carry lumber and such, and have found the rack very inadequate.
The hulls are now home......... The side trip cost me 50% more distance than a straight through trip would have........ but every trip I make out to visit family ends up at about that distance, so no net increase in mileage compared to typical. And forcing me to build the rack was a GOOD thing that needed to be done.
The Plan is to install two fixed cross beams to the canoe hull, one forward, and one aft, about 2M apart. Each beam will also be about 2M long, and they will be joined by a deck on either side that will extend inboard beyond the original gunnel, leaving a footwell of about 46cm, leaving 76cm of side deck on each side , 2M long. Sitting and sleeping decks. This structure will be made as light as possible, the decks themselves made of 1" XPS foam glass on either side, with guttering built in to handle spray. The structure will be well aft of center, with the forward beam serving as part of the mast support. The forward end of the canoe hull will be covered with doped fabric (aircraft type), and a spray shield will help keep spray off the decks (hopefully). This will be fabric. Folding or removable beams will support the Hobie hulls spaced out about 3M total....... the outer half meter on each side will be open.
The Hobie came with two wonderfully well built kick up / folding rudders, and all the hardware..........But I plan only to use one as a rudder. The other will end up being a leeboard, and will be beneath one side deck. I see no good reason to have two leeboards on a multihull.
It will of course get a single free standing mast and a junk rig, and the plan is for it to use a bit of an oversize rig. I'm not sure what fabric to use, but considering the application, almost anything would do..... it would be nice to have something both cheap and light. The GF is a brilliant seamstress, who loves quilting... perhaps I can talk her into getting "creative".
The idea is to have a cheap and fun and easy to transport craft that I can camp out on for a few nights at a time on some of these big reservoirs... either alone or with an adventurous girlfriend. The big easy to sail and reef main should allow for ghosting, and a boom tent and anchor for camping out a bit offshore... (bear country). The side deck arrangement will sleep two, as well as making for sitting room, cooking space, relaxing, etc. I have virtually never had a "job", and I long ago structured my business for flexibilty, so the result is that I can take off during the week when other people are at jobs, and enjoy solitude.
Anyway that's the plan for this coming summer..........
HW.