G'day guys, Just thought I would introduce myself and my project "The Vaka Meraki"My name is Josh Peaker, I'm 27 years old and I am Building a 52ft Polynesian Double canoe in my backyard. My youtube video explains a bit better how I am doing this but I'll give you a quick run down here as well.


I have designed the build to be symmetrical front and back with the exception of the 2 metre bow section and the 2metre stern section.
this allows me to make a mold for only quarter of the hull and a bow and stern mold. So in real time I am quite a bit through making the molds for this boat, and i am no considering a vacuum infusion process to lay up the hulls I will add some photos of the build so far but the easiest way to track the build is on youtube.
I started the plug by making MDF bulkheads and sheets them with 3mm MDF sheets with melamine, I wouldn't recommend this as the 3mm MDF was very unstable with different temperatures, if I was to do it again I would use plywood. After sheeting it the joins needed glassing, fairing and painting. The joins were then vinyl wrapped to seal them even further and the whole plug was waxed 5 times. The gelcoat was applied then a 300g CSM mat was applied with vinylester resin to better cope with stretching and expanding then further layers were done in polyester resin. That kind of bring this project very very briefly up to scratch in real-time but as I said previously the youtube vids do it more justice. Just thought id put the project out for anyone that may be interested in following along. You can also tag along on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/The-Vaka-Meraki-111662026867991/Cheers guys