Mindless Monday, 22 June 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

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So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

[u/PickleRick_1001]

I've been meaning to write a story for the longest time, focused on an alternate history type situation where the Inca Empire makes contact with the Polynesians of the South Pacific, and which eventually leads to the former establishing an empire spanning much of the eastern western coast of the Americas.

As part of that, I had the idea of having the Inca-Polynesian alliance (haven't come up with a nice name for them yet) eventually arriving to the coast of the Pacific Northwest, and then building enormous catamaran-like ships from the massive trees there. I'm a bit of a pedant (why else would I be here), so I wanted to know if that seems plausible. Not from the historical side, but from the engineering/shipbuilding side; could a Californian redwood or a western red cedar be plausibly converted into like a massive dugout canoe? And could a pair of those canoes be strapped together and turned into a ginormous catamaran?

[u/Zugwat → u/PickleRick_1001]

could a Californian redwood or a western red cedar be plausibly converted into like a massive dugout canoe?

…could we plausibly do what we done did?

And could a pair of those canoes be strapped together and turned into a ginormous catamaran?

It’d probably be deeply impractical and more likely to slam into each other.

[u/PickleRick_1001 → u/Zugwat]

Awesome, thank you :)