Pacific Paddler April 2016 - (Page 32)

Keizo on DESIGN Over the years, the canoe has morphed in appearance and performance. From basic materials, fiberglass and resin, to space age manufacturing techniques, we wanted to know a little bit about the process in which a new canoe comes to market. We asked Keizo Gates, who is part of Kamanu Composites' team of paddlers and boat builders, how they design new canoes. Kamanu Composites started in 2007 by three paddlers who wanted to build canoes. Now their business has manufacturers in France (Woo) and Australia (Kamanu Aus) and distribution networks in Los Angeles, Seattle, Japan, and Hong Kong. They build a wide variety of OC-1, rudderless, OC-6, unlimited class canoes and a score of other accessories. Their online store is at www.kamanucomposites.com. What is your most successful OC-1 design? Keizo: We always hope that our most successful design will be the next one. Really though, both the first and second generation Pueo have had more success than we ever could have hoped for. What design elements were you shooting for when it was conceived? All of our design work is based off of three main principles: we want our products to perform well, to look good, and to be designed for manufacturing. That last one is especially important to us because we do all of the building ourselves. Whatever problems we introduce in the design will be our problems for a long time. While the ocean dictates the overall design, the details are driven by the construction process. It's really just a process of continual simplification. 32 PACiFiC PADDLER APRIL 2016 Keizo Gates surfing China Walls at Portlock How often do you work on designing a new canoe? Whether we're building or paddling-- we are always thinking about what to change. Most of the guys and girls in the shop paddle, and we're constantly getting feedback from our team riders, so the process never really ends. We are always tinkering with the design, both on the computer and on the water. When you first started, what was the process? We've always used tools on the computer as a starting point in our design process. We start with a computer model, then we try to translate that into the real world. Sometimes that process works well, but other times we do a lot of fine tuning by hand. Specifically with canoe hulls, we start with a shape and we have software that can estimate flat water drag. The computer gives us the benefit of being able to run hundreds of fluid dynamics tests before the canoe even touches the water. Then once we're happy with a design on the computer, we use a computer controlled cutting machine (CNC) to bring it to life. And then the real testing starts. During the prototyping process, we'll often make discoveries that we didn't see in the computer modeling phase, so we'll go back to the computer, make a change, make a new prototype, and start the process over. There were five physical prototypes and hundreds of computer iterations before we finalized the design for the 2nd generation Pueo. How has coming up with a new canoe shape changed? For us there's been two things that have improved in our process. One is that we have a lot more experience now. We've done enough designs that we can quantify and compare the numbers on each canoe. We can get a pretty good idea on whether we'll like a boat in the surf or not, just by comparing the hydro-static numbers. Second is the prototyping process. We've been able to finally make boats from scratch that are comparable in weight to a production boat. While they're definitely not perfect, they are usable. That helps us get a sense of what something will be like before we commit to a mold. Now how do you build a prototype? Or do you go straight from CAD to production? We've built prototypes in any number of ways. The first two Aukahi (V1) prototypes we made were strip planked. We've made about four OC-1 prototypes completely from scratch out of foam. Other times we've taken existing boats and attached a new foam hull. If we're exploring smaller changes to the hull, we've cut existing boats to modify rocker. We tend to use a different method depending on what we're trying to do. We've had about eight prototypes in the Pueo family, and only two designs that we've actually produced. So we really try to convince ourselves something is better before we go into production. What are you working on now - what elements are you designing too? Mostly just keeping up with regular production and the day to day of running a business! On design though, we're trying to redesign the Aukahi. It was the first boat designed through the computer/prototype process described above, and we've learned a lot since then. We are currently making some new Pueo molds as well. Not much is changing on the Pueo, and most people won't be able to tell the difference. But we are making some adjustments to the footwell and seat rails, and in the spirit of continual improvement, we're making some slight modifications to the hull. http://www.kamanucomposites.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Paddler April 2016

Epic Kayaks Makapu'u Dash
KIRA SUP Hi Kai to Magic Island
Kona Brewing Co-Maui Jim Waterman Challenge
The Allstate Oahu Championships 16
PAA Koa Nui
Kauai Hoe Wa' a
Keizo Gates on OC-1 design
Escort Boats Hawaii
What's shaking on Hawaii Island
Koolauloa Canoe Paddling
Aloha 'ohana hoe wa'a!
20 Years of New York Paddling
Fitness secrets for paddlers
How to improve your paddling
Dates for your paddling calendar
On my Bucket List

Pacific Paddler April 2016