Ama connections

I made a couple fibreglass sleeves using epoxy resin, and cut them to fit the decks of the amas.

Next they get filled, faired, and drilled for pins that will hold them in place.

So this is what she looks like all together, right-side up:

It looks like the amas will be just kissing the water when the boat is level. They are extremely light.

Leeboard slot

I made a board with a slot in it, which was supposed to be attached to the deck above the leeboard pivot bolt, but it seemed clunky and that it would protrude too much and get in the way of paddling.

So I asked John to look at it and see if there was another way of doing it. And there is:

A bent stainless rod with tabs welded on

The upper board guard was added previously, to make the inboard edge of a slot to capture the top of the board. The board guards, upper and lower, are straight and in the same plane, designed to keep the board aligned with the centreline of the boat.

Due to the forces of the water on the board, it's supposed to stay in the vertical position while underway without needing to be tied. If it turns out that it doesn't, a bungee cord will work, back from the hole in the handle to the aka just aft.

Before the tabs were fastened to the deck, oversize holes were drilled in the deck and filled back in with epoxy filled with chopped strand (glass). After the epoxy hardened, proper sized holes for the bolts were drilled through the epoxy-glass area and backing plates that had been previously installed.

Below shows the board fully up. It will be tied up in this position when putting into and pulling out of the water. I'll be taking the board off for car-topping. I can tighten it with a wing-nut on the inside of the boat.

Leeboard

I think John said this was a rudder blade from a 420 "or something".

I made a handle for it out of two pieces of quarter inch ply with an aluminum core, cut a slice out of the top of the blade, and inserted the metal of the handle into it. I had drilled holes in the aluminum, making epoxy "rivets" to better grab the aluminum.

I know, it looks backwards, but the leading edge, other side from the handle, is the fat part of the NACA foil.

Aft is to the left.

The little piece of quarter inch ply on the deck indicates where the slot board will be.

Tri trial

Checking out the fit—upside-down:

The waterline is supposed to be just under the chine knuckle of the main hull, so it looks like the amas will be just kissing the water.

Good view of the forward aka piercing the foredeck.

Leeboard guard:

On the starboard side, quarter-inch mahogany ply makes a straight face for the board to pivot on. The ends of the 16"-long board happily just happen to be equidistant from both the centreline and the outside of the hull, meaning that the guard is right in the middle of the curve, or "dead amidships".

A super leeboard is in the works.

Forward aka tube

Measured many times before cutting, and got a different read each time, so took an average and went with that.

Held my breath while cutting into the decks! But it seemed to work out okay.

Used a hole saw and then reamed the hole into an oval with a burr bit. The akas happened to come out level with each other!

Sawed the tube ends off closer to the decks before fixing it in permanently, as I figured I'd just grind the ends off flush with the decks.

The photo below was taken when the boat was upside-down, then the photo was inverted to make sense of it. The black is carbon fibre tape. The micro-lite fairing filler (tan colour) was a mistake to use in this instance, as it sags.

The white tube is for the rudder line turn-around. I went to a lot of trouble to make the cockpit opening somewhat rounded at its forward end so that the rudder line would slide around easily—and then decided to put the line on the inside of the cockpit instead!

First furniture

Installed a little shelf on each side by the aft bulkhead, close to where my butt will land. Forward of that I'm thinking of installing hanging net bags or something like that.

Found some paint from Firefly that looks like enough. So Golightly could be red & white. (I've abandoned the fluorescent look since I haven't found the right paints in small quantities.)

Presently I'm finishing hatch lids and fairing and sanding hull exteriors. All hulls are almost ready for paint. Placing and installing the forward aka tube is the next big thing. Hopefully I'll be able to put it in parallel to the aft one  .

Ama ports, aka sleeve

The aka access ports will be circles of mahogany ply, screwed on with silicone sealer under.

The aft aka sleeve is firmly attached:

The sleeve was made on the pipe, with two wraps of heavy plastic sheeting for spacing, and many wraps of waxed paper (the width of the roll's worth) as a parting agent. Two wraps of 6-oz glass cloth pre-saturated on the table with epoxy made up the sleeve itself.

The sleeve was attached with lots of chopped strand epoxy goop (strong!) to fill the corners, and three layers of 6-oz glass cloth saturated with epoxy. The aka pipe slides through it easily, yet the fit is tight enough that I believe it won't be noisily chattering in certain conditions.