18' Ulua

"KaiKaina" the little sister of  "Malolo" 

Since the 28' Hawaiian canoe "Malolo" is not easy to sail and paddle single handed, I figured I need a smaller canoe for solo paddle / sail expeditions around Laguna Bacalar. I started to build a 18' Ulua. It is always a problem down here in southern Mexico to get epoxy resin and therefore I made the hull out of
fiber glass with polyester resin.

Doing it for the first time was not as easy as I hoped for and the hull came out quite heavy but at least it holds up some abuse.



To build the hull I followed more or less Sam Rizzetta's book "Canoe and Kayak Building the Light and Easy Way". I set up the forms from "Malolo" put some wood strips on and covered everything with kitchen foil. Unfortunately the space between the strips are to big so the hull looks more multi chinned then round and to sand it smooth made to much fiber dust, so I stopped right away.

I still had Ama and Iako's from the Wa'apa project,
nice way to recycle left over parts.
As well the sail, boom and the rudder are from other
outrigger canoes I build and are quite handy now.

After the first sail I put
an extra small seat on
the non ama side to
prevent the ama from
diving when going
down wind.
I capsized the canoe just
to see how it floats and here comes the problem with the heavy hull and that fiber glass boats will sink without proper float chambers, the gunnel is just 2 inches above the water. I think only the bow, stern and one seat air chamber prevented it from sinking.

I have to check out if a safety ama will do the trick or I have to install an self draining floor. The latter option definitely ads a lot more weight and work to it.