Sailor Eric Dahlkamp sent the following via email this past weekend. All the hard work has paid off and now he gets to enjoy the boat, hopefully, for years to come.
What a great, fun craft to enjoy in retirement. Messing about with a small tri on the water.
Does it get any better when it comes to watersports? Not so much, for some of us.
(Thanks for sharing this info and the new videos (below) with us Eric :-)
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Eric writes:
Last sail of the year. Those mountains and hills are now covered in snow – a day after I was out on the water.
Squirt is about there now. Was able to tweak her stern by adding that swallow tail, and improve her rudder foil for the better.
Thanks everyone for your advice. Also finally rigged the little jib. Beautifully balanced and planes at 10 knots or so off wind. Let’s me heave too also which is a huge bonus. Adding a third reef and bow tramps as splash guards over winter.
My GPS registered 13.2 knots top speed, which is pretty darn good for a 13′ boat!
Still haven’t had the sea room to try her Spinnaker yet. I’ll get to that next season.
Update – 12/14-21: Just added the below video after Eric shared it in his comment below…
I was always told to have a narrow vaka. What is the width of the vaka at waterlevel?
Anyway I love the ama’s !! Well done.
Thanks for commenting.
Yes, narrow Vaka, and hulls in general, are best for multihulls.
I built this for other than speed reasons. At 13’ a narrow Vaka would not have the displacement for me, my gear, supplies and water on a week-long expedition sail. Wanted enough freeboard for dryness, width for displacement and open wide floor for sleeping. This was the compromise. Vaka is 38” at gunnel at widest point. At waterline she’s 30”.
I’m installing a sliding hiking seat between the amas right now. Hiking out a little more will help tremendously to keep the amas from burying too much. And she’ll be faster. She planes easily when sailed flat.
She carries oars mounted on the amas and a small 2 stroke motor.
Oars – https://youtu.be/9IeSr_5GjM8