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The folding kayak under sails

Folding kayak and sailing?

Since 1980 I have a polyester kayak, which we built ourselves. But this boat has its limitations.

So I started looking around for a folding kajak. In the spring of 1999 I had fould a lot of information after surfing the Internet for three evening, at www.faltboot.org and a lot of other sites. I had ordered "The complete folding kayaker" by Ralph Diaz. Now I had to start reading. In the autumn of 1999 I bought a second hand folding kayak, a Klepper Aerius Expedition II, with sails.

Since 2000 I have been making several trips, on the river Lahn in Germany, the lake Mälaren in Sweden and on lakes in Friesland (at Oudega), the Netherlands.

I wanted to try out sailing and to build an outrigger construction for that. In the internet I found numerous examples, from amateur builders (for example Faltbootbasteln) and from manufacturers.

My idea was to have a relative simple construction, with outriggers made out of wood, with a flexible connection to the folding kayak. Suitable for one or two persons. Paddling should also be possible (for one person).

In the summer of 2003 it then was so far, the design sketch was ready and I could start building.

 

Folding kayak under sails

The outriggers (“ama”) were built out off maritime quality plywood, according to the "stitch and glue" method with epoxy resin. They were 190 cm long. On the sides a wooden list is located, to be able to fix the outriggers well onto the cross "beams".

The cross beams (“aka”) are fixed onto the ribs. The cross beams allow through their profile the outriggern some movements. This flexibility was chosen to lead the forces more even into the (also not rigid) folding kayak.

The lee boards were made from waterproof plywood. The lee boards minimise the loss of height when sailing.

The rudder had to be enlarged with an aluminium plate, to be able to steer the folding kayak better (ok, here I used ty-raps…)

 

My folding kayak with the outriggers and the new lee boards in april 2004

 Front view: the outriggers (190 cm length, 30 cm height, 20 cm width) are mounted with wooden lists. Width over all is 2,70 meter (9 feet).

And that without the use of ty-raps…

 View from rear position, to the left

View from rear position, to the right

The compass for the direction, and all ropes. But where is the duck?

More comfort than Motel Mondeo

Pictures of the boat on the water can be found at Faltbootbasteln, under "Mehrrumpfboote"

mailto: Bengt

updated 19.02.2005

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