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| Outrigger canoe |
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As the navigation program is of Polynesian inspiration we chose an outrigger canoe to accomplish our crossing in reference to the Maoris navigators who invented this type of vessel.
For aesthetical and originality reasons the outrigger will be in varnished wood… |
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For the same reasons of originality, the outrigger must of course be very small. 6m50 will be enough. The Maoris had real vessels, catamarans of 30 to 40 meters for their voyages and sailed in fleets, whole villages together, hundreds of people…
We have always loved designing boats and have created a personal design program on our computer over a few years. Final characteristics of Micromegas 3 |
| - Main hull : | 6m 50 x 0m 80 |
| - Second hull: | 5m 50 x 0m 35 |
| - Total width : | 3m 60 |
| - Empty weight : | 300 kg |
| - Rigging : | Schooner «lougre» |
| - Sail Surface : | 21 m2 |
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| The rigging |
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The type of rigging must also be antique so we opted for a medieval period rigging schooner “lougre” ie two masts and 2 sails.
The sail surface 21 square meters. |
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| The construction |
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After conceiving and designing the plans of our pirogue all we need to do is build it. Our attic is transformed into navel building site.
We are not from a sailing background but more from that of surfing which we have been doing since 1965 at the beaches of south-west France. We have already made many surfboards and of course our boat Micromegas from our last crossing. |
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So we buy lengths of a very light American wood, red cedar that we cut up into long slats. In our attic we then trace and cut all the forms of each hull in chip board and mount our building site. The slats are assembled with extreme care, one after the other, adjusted against each other and glued after planing both sides. The work must be perfect. As the finish is transparent we absolutely can not use any filler coat. After 3 months and lots of elbow grease we finally see our first hull, and the second. The supple traverse beams that hold all the structure together are of red fir tree from Finland that is both magnificent and elastic. We of course made both masts out of wood. |
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| The trials |
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Two years later the gleaming boat is rigged. We do some trials in the waves at our beach of Contis, since there is no port there.
For our training, during the summer of 2002 we escorted by the ocean Micromegas 3 all the way to the Canary Islands, the departure point of our expedition, with conventional instruments of navigation. |
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2500 Km in horrible weather conditions, very strong winds and high seas without ever seeing the sun or the stars for 2 weeks. Although the life on board was very cramped (1 bunk, space reduced at 1.5 m3 for two) and the ancient rigging very delicate to use the boat went very well. Our main difficulty in rough weather is humidity as we have a lot of video, sono and photo equipment to protect and spending most of our time at the helm we finish up with painful swollen hands.
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| Concept : Accord des Mondes |
© 2005 Emmanuel & Maximilien BERQUE |
Outrigger canoe