RKAS Trio: Spem Reduxit 225th Anniversary

New Brunswick's motto - Spem Reduxit [Hope Restored] was the title of the RKAS trio adventure lead by Graeme, Phil and Dave to traverse the Saint John River from there port in Rothesay as far upriver as they could from Wednesday the 29th till Monday the 3rd of August 2009 in celebration of New Brunswick's 225th Anniversary.

After stormy weather, thunderstorms, near sinking and loosing almost two days of travel due to increment weather the RKAS trio still managed to take there fine home-made vessel; "Hell or High Water" up to the Evandale Ferry and back to Rothesay again. A 125km round trip that was well worth it and extremely full-filling.

RKAS (Royal Kennebecasis Adventure Society) began construction on this ship, christened "Hell or High Water" in February of 2009 and on June 20th 2009 she was launched with all 5 members who helped in her construction and assembly. It was build using the design from Gary Dierkings Book "Building Outrigger Sailing Canoes". Using local talents (ourselves) local materials we scrounged up or found and the video itself set to some fine local free music.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• RKAS
• Spem Reduxit
• Hell or High Water
• Proa
• Rothesay
• New Brunswick
• Canada
• RKAS Trio
• Kennebecasis River
• Gary Dierking
• Wa'apa

[e0ytk]

@glockfan40 Yeah it certainly helps in wavy situations. It is very light yes indeed, no worries there. I'd also recommend looking into building some kind of wave deflector for the bow. We found that when you move at a fast pace the boat cuts through the waves and you get splashing into the front section. You can see how full it got at one point near the end of he video briefly here, lol.

[glockfan40]

I will likely install the safety AMA for peace of mind in the Gulf of Mexico, and because I may use a 2hp outboard. Is the foam construction a good bit lighter than ply?

[e0ytk]

@glockfan40 So what we did was use a ply spine, and glued about 4 pieces of styrofoam on each side. Then we cut it to shape, made it half length, 8ft roughly. We then did some careful sanding, styrofoam is tricky to shape, mostly have to cut it. Then we used bondo and fiberglass with west system epoxy and finally white marine paint. Last thing we did was decide to use it to put the boats name on. Any questions just ask away, thanks again. Let me know when you have some videos of yours up.

[e0ytk]

@glockfan40 : Hey thanks, it's a great boat you'll love it, it's especially great headed down wind and broad-reach with the tacking rig. Up wind on a close haul she'll move but a bit slugglish compared to catamarans etc. Yes we have a safety Ama, we only did that because we have a tacking rig instead of a shunting rig and didn't want to worry about the boat tipping up to the point water came over the side. We actually made that out of plywood and styrofoam, the pink harder kind. I'll explain.

[glockfan40]

Awesome boat, videos and adventures! I have Gary's book and full Wa' apa plans and hope to build soon. It appears you have a safety ama opposite the full size one? Is it built the same way as the full size ama?

[e0ytk]

@ieatjuiceboxes : Thank you very much, we're doing an even longer journey this summer, in about two months time along the same river.

The song, if you're referring to the first one playing is "The Witch of the Westmorland" by Stan Rogers, a Maritime legend in Eastern Canada.

[ieatjuiceboxes]

Cool video, and awesome journey!

Outta curiousity, what is the name of the song?