the ama is coming along.

I inserted 4 ply bulkheads.  The pylons are set in a cedar shoe.  A forstner bit was used to make a secure base.  Then the pylon shoots up through a stringer that is epoxied in.
The interior is epoxy coated and will get closed up next.

Ama for the sailing canoe:

Today we cut up steel and brazed it to create station sections for the sailing canoe's ama.
We had some nice radius 1 inch square tube.  It has been sitting around awhile and we finally found a use for it.

The hull is being strip built of 1.5 inch cedar strips and will be about 11 feet long.
The strips are cut to 5/16ths or there abouts and run through the Red Fox!
This is fun:

My machinist friend, Charlie C.

Charlie at Industrial Machine is a fantastic fellow who is saving some serious iron from the scrap heap.
In the corner of his shop on Broadway, he pointed out this fantastic 1937 Red Fox bench planer.
It looks like it was barely used and stored well.
Snapped it up, and he has a 1920's Crescent 32 inch band saw we are reworking.
Look at this...

The bantam is a fantastic boat!

August Curt and I took out the Rhodes Bantam for a test sail on tiny Beaver Lake in Southern IL.  The Mississippi is too high and fast to try without a motor.
I really like the lines of the Bantam.  I used to not like chines esthetically, until I sailed this boat. The chines perform a great function, digging in.  They give boats stability when heeled.  The boyancy in the chines angular shape resists heeling when a curved hull will keep rolling.
The boat accelerates really fast with very little wind.
This boat needs a couple modifications.  The non original tiller handle is way too long.
The boom is a plank that is unnecessarily low in the cockpit.
Here are some dockside pics:

This is the mast base in action.
It works great but you have to be careful when handling the mast.  You don't want it to pop out when setting or striking the mast.