Build process documented along with the first trips out on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area

Big Horn Solo Tripping canoe builder/owner, Stan Heeres, has put together a fantastic, step-by-step construction log with a few, teaser shots of the boat in use. http://kchsvb.com/bighorn/BIG%20HORN%20CONSTRUCTION_files/frame.htm

In the near future, Stan’s logbook will be strengthened with a full, on-the-water, report from his son, Kevin, who has taken it out into the Boundary Waters for some serious adventure paddling with his Dad. Stan has offered brief report (see below) on the boat’s specifics and some of the intriguing details of its performance capabilities when matched with the John Winters designed, Osprey models in both strip-built and multichined plywood. The Osprey is the solo canoe that served as the inspiration for the Big Horn. My acknowledgement as to the influence that John Winters has had on my work from the outset is gratefully indicated in the original article here on my website. That short piece can be seen here:  http://www.lunadadesign.com/big-horn-15-solo-canoe.html

Stan Heeres’ recent comments as follows:

“I purchased plans from you for the Big horn a few years ago. My son and I built the canoe and have since been on 2 Boundary Waters trips with it.
I promised you that I would detail the building process. I did and am just finishing the presentation up and will post it soon.
I have also built the John Winters Osprey (both the strip version and the plywood version). Here are a few details”

Strip Osprey

Lightest(34 lbs), receives the most comments by a wide margin (it looks really good), slowest of the 3 and hardest to keep in a straight line of the 3 at speed.

Plywood Osprey

2nd lightest lightest(36 lbs), very functional but does not get the comments, 2nd fastest and stays in a good straight line.

Big Horn

Heaviest(38 lbs), glides like a dream, Kevin, who uses it, will effortlessly pull away from the other canoes, tracks straight as an arrow.

It’s pretty clear that I am proud of the boat and how it has turned-out for an experienced canoe builder. Being able to say that one of my boats can effortlessly pull away from a design created by a known master in the trade is exciting. That it also has terrific tracking manners when loaded and out on serious water, really makes all the design considerations worthwhile. Stan, thanks so much for the really kind words on the boat. I’m really looking forward to Kevin’s report.

Posted: July 21st, 2011 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none

Checking-in with Ben Algera as he builds a boat for a future Watertribe event

With the main hull now successfully launched and then paddled briefly with his wife and kids, Ben has taken the first important step towards the completion of his XCR.

Sailing and paddling trips await Ben with this boat as it can seemlessly morph from a straight-up decked tripping canoe to a very nice sailing trimaran in minutes.

There are all sorts of photos of Ben’s build progress at his Blog site.  http://www.bensboats.blogspot.com/ 

Take a few moments to scan through his entries and you can see for yourself how easy it is to build an XCR of your own.

Posted: September 16th, 2009 under Canoes, Paddled, Sailing, Sailing Multihulls, Trimarans, Uncategorized.
Comments: 1

First of all… La Trinite is a pretty small and cozy coastal town in Brittany with a beautiful harbor surrounded by seaside shops, restaurants and boating related businesses. Private homes are tucked up into the trees along the shore. The highest elevation in town tops out at 40 feet, or so, above sea level. You’d just never imagine that there is a fairly hefty collection of the most exotic, state of the art sailing machines sitting within the safety of its moorings, but there they are.

As of this writing, the highest of high end fully seaworthy maxi multihulls are represented by the nearly twin trimaran designs from Nigel Irens and Benoit Cabaret in the form of Francis Joyon’s, World Record holding IDEC and Thomas Coville’s Sodeb’O. These two trimarans are nothing short of pure wonderment as they sit quietly on their mooring lines while representing totally coiled power that takes them to frightening speeds when under sail in the hands of a talented and experienced skipper.

They sit about a hundred yards apart in the harbor, staring across the water at one another as if to say, “Yeah, dude, what have you got?” I’ll touch on both these boats in my next post, but there are other distractions for a sailor at La Trinite that should be described before I get carried away with the globe shredding multihulls.

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Posted: September 11th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 2

I’m posting this piece from Nantes, France. I’m enjoying a little time exploring the city while I wait for my return flight to the USA tomorrow. But first, let’s back track a little, so that the whole thing makes sense.

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Posted: September 6th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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A remarkable,

compact tool for

watersports shooters

In the last post, I indicated that I’d be using the Bonica Snapper dive camera for shooting while on Sodeb’O this coming week. Well, the camera arrived on Friday and I’ve been going through the box and all the stuff that is included in the full kit…. along with the screw-on wide angle lens for the water housing.

Wow!, this is a really remarkable package for the suggested retail price, much less for what it typically goes for after a routine discount at the dive outlets that sell the system. There’s a handheld HD camera with a fold-out screen, a silicone “glove” that fits tightly over the camera along with a snap-on screen cover. The silicone slip cover protects the camera in watery environments such as rain, the kind of spray you’d encounter on a fast moving boat, etc. It is not meant to be a dive housing for taking the camera underwater.

The actual underwater housing is pretty sweet. It’s an injection molded polycarbonate two piece shell with an integrated o-ring in one half of the housing to give it a full waterproof seal against the elements. The housing is held together with three hefty cam clips that provide an equal pressure closure system around the perimeter of the o-ringed seam. The housing is rated to 180 feet underwater, so it will be good for a huge number of dive applications, as well as for whitewater boating, sailing, power boating and surfing/boogie boarding.

If there is time, I’m excited about the potential of getting in the water in La Trinite-sur-Mer and shoot Sodeb’O from a water level perspective. I used to do a lot of split screen effect shots of surfers back in the 80′s with my water housing equipped Nikon stills equipment. This is a technique in which the camera is held right at the surface with the water level in the middle of the focusing screen. It can be tricky to get really good images because you have to account for water clarity, exposure balancing for the two envionments and a well compose and framed image. A really well done image shows what is happening below the surface, as well as what is going on above in the same frame. Of course, you can over do it, like any specialized technique imagery. Too many of the same thing and the effect loses its value as an attention getter.

I’m looking forward to shooting in HD video for this blog as well as Youtube postings and also capture stills from the 5 meg still shooting capability.

I’m going to have to spend a good part of tomorrow getting tight on the camera functions, so they are natural parts of my photography moevments. It’s not an overly complex camera to learn, but this shooting gig is too important to have to fiddle with camera settings and controls while risking a lost shot.

I’ll write a full, photography review of the Bonica when I get back from France.

 Chris Ostlind

Lunada Design

Posted: August 31st, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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105′ Carbon Fiber Racing Trimaran Sodeb’O in Sydney Harbor

Welcome Aboard! 

It’s confirmed, the flights are booked and I’m leaving on Tuesday afternoon, September 2nd on a non-stop flight to France. I’ll be going over to sail with Thomas Coville on his 105′ carbon fiber trimaran, Sodeb’O as a guest of Helly Hansen from Norway, the maker of outrageously cool outdoor clothing, such as the Ocean Racing Jacket, pictured below. While I will be staying in Nantes, the boat is actually up the coast a bit in La Trinite-sur-Mer.

Coville has already set two significant solo speed sailing records with his boat, the furthest distance covered in 24 hours and the fastest trip across the Atlantic from New York to England. I expect that before the boat is retired, he will be setting additional records of all kinds with an attempt at the Solo Round The World record scheduled for late in the fall of this year.

I will be shooting a ton of High Definition video on the trip, as well as hundreds of high res. still images. I’ll be using a terrific new, Bonica Snapper HDDV Underwater Camera for video/stills, which is completely waterproof and so compact that it fits in the front pocket of virtually all offshore sailing jackets. You can see the full kit at this link: http://www.scuba.com/scuba-gear-535/069742/Bonica-Snapper-HDDV-5.0-Megapixel-Digital-Video-Camera-with-Underwater-Housing.html

A full report, as well as a huge stash of HD video clips and photos will be available on this site after I get back and get myself pulled together from the jet lag.

Chris Ostlind

Lunada Design

Posted: August 27th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1