: I am looking for outrigger canoe plans. NOT to build some sort of stable
: platform for fishing or sailing, but to build a genuine outrigger canoe of
: the sort that one races and paddles with a single blade paddle.
: I have done a search of the net and on these forums. No luck.

: It seems that with the stability and seaworthiness of outrigger canoes that
: someone would have adapted a nice kayak to such a purpose.

: Ken

Forget most plans and just build a semicircular hull with 2 or 3 inch sidewalls.

I'd draw a picture if I could, but let me describe this: The center form of your boat will be a semicircle with a radius of 8 inches. that would make the boat 16 inches wide (One diameter, or twice the radius would be the width) So ar the hull is 8 inches high. Now draw straight lines up from the ends of this semicircle to increase the height of the hull by 2 to 3 inches, making the hull 10 or 11 inches tall.

You could, of course, make that radius smaller or larger, too. If you get down to a 6 inch radius, or a beam of 12 inches, you might want to make your straight extensions from this longer (to give more freeboard) and maybe angle them out so you get a bit more beam., and a wider place to plant yourself.

This is the profile you want over most of the length in order to have the least wetted surface area. For a 20 foot boat your center section would be like this for maybe 12 to 14 feet. The 3 to 4 feet at each end you would taper in to a point, or a vertical stem, depending on your preference. You may want to add an inch or two to the sidewall height at each end to keep out some waves. Assume this will be a fast, but wet ride at times, and you won't be disappointed.

Your "decks" should be short -- something like 1 a foot long. That's about twice the length of a deck on a canoe. You will want to secure some form of permanent flotation in these areas, either by gluing in foam sheets, using expand-in=place foams, or by building a bulkhead to create a trapped air compartment. If you go with a trapped air space for flotation,put in a 1/16th inch sized vent hole so the trapped air can escape during temperature changes, and a bung hole or hatch so you can let that area air out. this is a good place to store small items like a lunch, too.

Since you won't have a deck over most of the length, put in thwarts at 3 to 4 foot intervals, and make gunwales. You can go for two part gunwales, Innner and outer) or do it simpler by just using an outer gunwale. You can use 3/4 inch stock for this, and it should bend easily to match the gentle curves.

As for construction: Strip building would be a snap as all the center forms are the same shape. You can cut 4 or 5 at a time on a bandsaw. aligning them on the stronback would be very fast, too, as they would be identical in width you'ld just line them up with a straightedge. Stripping would be rapid, too, as all the strips in the middle of the hull would be full-width and have no complex curvature. Slap 'em on and glue 'em down. Depending on your design for the ends, your fitting of strips should be fairly easy and rapid, too.

If you are working with stitch and glue, consider using the bendable plywood mentioned about a week ago. A single 4x8 sheet (or is it 8x4? You want the plywwod with the grain running the length of the panel on all three plies) ripped in half and scarfed into a nearly 16-foot-long piece should be able to roll into a nice half cylinder, You can use regular plywood for the tapered ends, or added sidewall height, or for the decks. Cut a couple of forms into the shape of your desired hull cross section, roll the plywood around them to form it, and and then mount these in place as bulkheads and braces during your construction. You can open up the middle of these, of course.

As for the outrigger. Start with a piece of 3 inch pvc pipe about 6 feet long.
Shove in a tight fitting plug of wood or some PVC cut from a spare section of pipe, and seal that about 2 inches in from each end. Use PVC cement with a PVC piece, and epoxy resin with a wood plug.

Whittle end plugs for it out of a block of wood, or styrene foam -- you may have to glue up a few sheets of thinner material to get the desired diameter -- and mount these in the 2 inch recess at each end of the tube. These give you the streamlined ends you want. They can be as long as you want, too. You can glue them in to the recess, or attach them with stainless steel flat head screws. This way the tube is completely sealed even if the end plug should fall off!

If this does not give enough flotation, go to either a longer tube, or a larger diameter tube. You can get rigid 4 inch plastic pipe (drain pipe) in most plumbing sections of hardware stores. It will probabl be ABS or PVC. Either will work, but if you use scraps to plug the ends, be sure to get the proper adhesive.

The further you mount the outrigger from the boat the more resistance there will be to your upsetting the boat, but the more your outrigger arms will weigh, and the stronger they'll have to be. Consider putting the outrigger 2 to 4 feet away from you.

Now, which side are you going to mount the outrigger on? If you plan to paddle on the right side, and want the outrigger out of the way, you would probably put it on the left side. but by paddling on the right side all the time you tend to force the front end of the boat to the left. when you add the drag from the outrigger you have a boat that has a strong tendency to make left hand turns. (Are you racing this at Indianapolis?) So, either you add a rudder, which increases drag, or you mount the outrigger on the same side you paddle on. As you lean over to paddle, the outrigger will submerge more as the center of bouyancy shifts to the right of the centerline of the boat. That added drag may compensate for the turning effect your paddling has. The effect may be affected by how far forward, or back, the outrigger is located, too. and, of course you can mount it at a tiny angle so it acts like a fixed rudder.

Ideally, you could paddle all day on the same side of the boat and have it maintain a straight course without correction strokes. Which reminds me: Those underdeck storage areas would be a good place to stash a tube of liniment, for later soothing those tired muscles.

Mike Hanks found this picture of a kayak with a very simple outrigger, an inflatable one. The mounting is quite simple and light as it uses just one spar and two guy lines. By varyin the tension on the guy lines you could turn the angle of the outrigger, and thus tune it to keep you moving in a straight line.

Which leads me to ponder. What if you used a single spar for mounting the outrigger, and put the spar toward the front of the outrigger, letting the back end move freely. That might remove some of the tendency to have the outriger act like a rudder, as it should swing in line with the path of least resistance.
You could make a fish-form outrigger, with a wider front and a tapering tail so the spar put its pressure over the center of bouyancy of the outrigger.

You can do a lot of experimenting with this. let us know how it oes.

Hope this helps.

PGJ