Bought an Ama

I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks than in the drink with my boat on the rocks.

--Unknown
There is nothing- absolutely nothing-
half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats.
-- Ratty said to Mole
Raise your sail one foot and you get ten feet of wind.-- Chinese Proverb
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.

--Helen Keller
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
--John Adams (1735 - 1826)
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
--Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)
All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea -- whether it is to sail or to watch it -- we are going back from whence we came.
--John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963)
A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
--Grace Murray Hopper (1906 - 1992)
"The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective."
-Henry David Thoreau
"Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, for somewhere deep in their oaken hearts the soul of a song is laid."
-Robert N. Rose

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Bought an Ama

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Written by Jon

Thursday, 18 January 2007 11:37

I had thought it would be fun, and less expensive to build a deep V ama, until I found an old hull at Don's Marine Salvage in Clearwater that fit the bill. My bro-in-law Ron helped me pull it out of a forgotten corner. There were 5 Hobie 14 hulls, and 2 Hobie 16 hulls in the yard when I was there. Not in great shape, but perfiect for a project like mine.

In the Yard

Here are the specs:

Model: Kis Kat

Length: 14'

Beam: 16"

It is 23" from keel to gunwhale, the Vaka is 24" in height. Speaking of a keel, it has a skeg!

The hull has a nice deep V that follows all the way aft to a skeg, then sweeps up to the stern. It is exactly what I was hoping for in an ama. The deck does not seem to have any soft spots, so I think that with some reinforcement I can attach the crossbeams easily.

Now I need to determine where it should be in relation to the vaka.

Oh, I also got some small aluminum crossbeams and a rudder in the deal. The rudder for this catamaran seems to have been mounted on an aft crossbeam, dead center between each hull.

Has anyone ever heard of a Kis Kat before?

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