Wa'apa

is hawaian out-rigger canoe with flat bottom as seen on the image to the right. The source of the image contains more information on this type of canoe.

Millhouse

We live in an old millhouse on the outskirts of Prague, Czech republic. In the period between April and July 2012 we had built a wa'apa there in the backyard.

Why and how?

Once upon a time there were some crazy adventurous plans for paddling somewhere far away. We were searching for a solution of various technical problems. Such as, how to make our river canoe safe on the sea. Or how to make our paddling easier with the use of wind. When looking for inspiration, we came upon Gary Dierking's book Building Outriger Sailing Canoes.

We had to abandon the action plans, but the book remained. Surprisingly simple building procedures did not leave us at peace, so finally we started looking for materiel and on 31st March 2012 we unloaded the plywood boards at the Millhouse backyard.

Not having neither a proper workshop nor tools we had to improvise a lot. When that failed, a friend from the nearby university workshop helped.