Take the Orchid Outrigger Canoe Walk Around

The Orchid Outrigger Canoes

Our outrigger canoes were designed here on the central coast and built in Los Osos for ocean and bay paddling in our local coastal environment. The 17-4 Koholu'a is a modern composite version of a small Hawaiian canoe, a design perfected many hundreds of years ago by generations of island canoe builders. This modern evolution of classic design provides paddlers with a unique combination of stability, speed, maneuverability, and utility. Built specifically for coastal paddles, an environment where the design really has the opportunity to display its seaworthiness, bay paddles are best described as a "stroll in the park."

The craft is so stable that you can stand in it. The canoe cannot be flipped or upset. The seating position is comfortable and dry (no wetsuit needed). Large, hatched, dry storage compartments fore and aft and the roomy cockpit provide more than ample stowage for plenty of gear. Add to this the ease of maneuvering and paddling, and you have the perfect estuary exploration craft.

About Our Design - 17' 4" Koholu'a

The Hawaiian term for a 2-seat canoe is koholu'a. The Orchid Outrigger is a modern fiberglass composite translation of a design developed and perfected perhaps a thousand years ago. It was not our intent to improve or modernize this classic design. Hawaiian canoe builders developed and refined the small outrigger canoe to a state of functional perfection long before Cook would "discover" their islands. It is hoped the Orchid Outriggers' Koholu'a will be seen as a humble evolution of a small Pre-contact Hawaiian outrigger canoe with all the utility, seaworthiness, and graceful harmony of the original.

See Outrigger History.

Any small outrigger consists of three major components. The main hull, or ka'ale, the float, or ama, and a pair of spars, or iako. These are lashed together, with the ama traditionally rigged on the left side. The Orchid Outrigger 17-4 Koholu'a, is rigged in this traditional manner and lashed together as a traditional canoe.

The first question that most people ask: Why is the outrigger on only one side? Answer: You only need it on one side. The buoyancy of the ama will not allow the canoe to roll in the direction of the ama, and the weight of the ama will not allow the canoe to roll in the opposite direction. To this end, Orchid Outriggers has enhanced the stability of the design by adding a ballast-tank within the ama. This tank is baffled and has a fill port and a vent built into the top of the ama. When filled with water, this tank increases the weight of the ama by about fifteen pounds. In this state the canoe cannot be upset. The addition of the ballast in the ama also improves the canoe's performance in very windy conditions. Also, by damping the canoe's normal rolling and pitching motions, this ability to add ballast makes the Orchid Outrigger an ideal photographic platform.

The second question: Isn't there a better way to hold it all together than with rope? Answer: No. The traditional lashing method of attaching the hull to the iakos, and the ama to the iakos, is the strongest and best method. The lashing distributes the clamping load over a wide area of the iakos. Although very ridged, it allows the canoe, ama, and iakos to work and flex with the motion of the seas' surface. Orchid Outriggers are lashed because we feel that lashing is the strongest and most seaworthy solution to the problem.

The ka'ale, or hull, of the 17-4 Koholu'a is based on and inspired by that of a pre-contact or classic Hawaiian outrigger of like size. The classic canoe's seating style and arrangement, storage, and flotation provisions and, hopefully, its style are translated into modern fiberglass composite construction. The Orchid Outriggers canoe hull is hand laid-up, cored, fiberglass, lightweight, and very strong. The design incorporates large flotation compartments fore and aft. Large hatched storage compartments are located in front of and behind the paddlers. The seats are contoured and sit a foot above the bottom of the canoe, providing a comfortable, dry seating position.

As we develop this web site, the design philosophy and construction details of the Orchid Outrigger will be fully discussed. The overriding considerations being strength, safety, sea worthiness, and utility. Cost and ease of construction were never factors.