Building Part1
I am currently building a 18' plywood/epoxy proa in upper austria. I bought Gary Dierkings excellent book and wanted to build his T2 first. It would not be possible to finish the boat this year, because of the time consuming strip-planking build method. So I looked for a plan for a plywood proa and found Othmar Karschulin's P5 (free download on http://www.multihull.de/).
My proa is based on P5's bulkhead plan, but I streched the length from 5m to 5,5m. My boats design will be similar to Gary's pretty T2 (Marshall Islands).
I spent a week on modifying the plans and started building in May 2009.
I made scarf joints on the 4mm plywood parts using a circular saw.
Ama parts almost ready for stitch and glue - keel and stringers are missing
Ama glued and fillets done - great moment when the flat wood gets 3D !
2 weeks later the vaka parts where ready for glueing. I was surprised how time consuming some build steps are for a beginner. This proa is my first boat.
This picture shows the difference from Othmar's original P5. P5 has maximum waterline for a given overall length because of its rounded canoe-like bows. My bows are Marshall Island style. I will also add dashbords to the bows and hope they will not be too bad when shunting.
The cockpit is set above the waterline. Self-draining holes will be cut into the leeboard. The sealed place below will be accessible through inspection ports.
I was very happy as I saw that the luv-plates met very well
I had to stop building in the middle of June for about 6 weeks (work, holidays, family, etc).
Next week I plan to work on the boat every day and I hope to bring her to the water before it's getting cold here in Austia.
2009-13-08
Cockpit floor is ready. Decks are glued. I will add a outer gunwale after glassing.
Ama is ready for glassing
The beams are made by laminating 5 pieces 10x50mm fir. Yard, boom and mast will also be made from laminated fir.
2009-24-08
I started with my spars this weekend. Here ist the boom made from 3 pieces 20x50mm fir. Length of the boom will be 4,80m, yard 5,90m, mast 4,20m
I did not have enough claps, so I fixed the parts with the claps and used some copper wire to be able to remove the clamps. I will buy another 10 clamps on monday.
My children testing the boat in the garage.
I added the dashboards and outer gunwales today.
