Articles

Will the Oz Goose fly?

 Hydrofoils  Research

Iain Henehan continues his foiling experiments with an Oz PD Goose, an ultra-simple 12ft (3.5m)  plywood club sailing dinghy designed by Michael Storer.

The Goose was introduced as a larger family version of the OzRacer some 6 years ago. But it was overlooked as “just a bigger OzRacer” until three years ago when Ian Henehan in Texas started to put videos of the boat going very fast with one on board (up to 12.9 knots) and sailing well…

Oz Goose on foils

28 March 2019     3 comments.

Buccaneer 33 seeking captain

 Dock Ranger  Trimarans

This 1987 Crowther Buccaneer 33 is an unusual find for the Pacific Northwest. According to the listing it was built in 1987 of wood/glass/epoxy and stretched two feet to 35.

Spring is here! Just in time for R2AK, you can race to Alaska, and win.

Find it here on Craigslist for $18,500 in Poulsbo, WA. Some assembly required.

Crowther Buccaneer 33

24 March 2019     0 comments.

A proa with no name

 Proas  Racing

UNNAMED PROA is a near 60’ racing design with a crab claw schooner rig! It’s the work of Jeremy Fischer of Martinique, who built the EQUILIBRE some 10 years back. I know little about the design except that it was originally intended to enter the Route du Rhum. The very narrow hull features an extreme wave-piercing bow, no doubt a nod to the submarine like experience of sailing the boat fast in a seaway 😉. A few of the construction pics…

No name proa

12 March 2019     3 comments.

Quiquec - outrigger canoe

 Boatbuilding  Outrigger Canoes  Smallcraft

Browsing through Youtube I discovered this charming 5.6m outrigger canoe named QUIQUEC, uploaded and built by Norbert Rettig of Hockenheim, DE. The 12 square meter lug rig is wonderfully old school but the canoe moves very well even so, and the low center of effort would certainly be appreciated with the lovely torpedo-shaped low-volume ama. All the spars, ama and beams fit neatly inside the hull for storage and transport on the roof…

Quiquec outrigger canoe

11 March 2019     0 comments.

Jacknife

 Boatbuilding  Proas

Ian Aitken’s JACKNIFE is “the world’s first 11m, folding, trailerable proa with freestanding wing mast”.

Although inspired by Rob Denney’s Harryproas, the craft was designed and built by Ian and ‘Barn Job Innovations’ of Taranaki, New Zealand. Well named, the craft unfolds like a Swiss Army Knife, only with more moving parts. Read more at Harryproa

Specifications

LW hull LOA = 11.0 m     one of the bows folds back to facilitate…

Jacknife

11 March 2019     0 comments.

The Camel: a sailing cargo proa

 New Designs  Proas

The Camel of the Sea is a sailing multihull cargo vessel designed for operation by a small crew of 3-6 in areas of steady winds and expensive petroleum. As outlined in The Case for the Cargo Proa, physics favors the proa configuration in the case of widely varying displacement. In this example, the fully laden boat weighs over three times the boat when empty. To recap the argument:

Widely variable displacement on multihulls is a…

Camel - 54' Cargo Proa

19 February 2019     10 comments.

Coconut - the 24’ sailing fishing proa

 New Designs  Proas

Coconut is a 24’ sailing fishing proa being built in Honokaa, Hawaii by Tim Mann, for employment in Micronesia as a lagoon taxi, fishing boat and small copra hauler. She is a proof of concept for Tim’s vision of “carbon-negative” modern technology vessels competing boat for boat against the gasoline-powered craft now so ubiquitous in the islands.

“She’s lashed together. Outboard-hung kick-up rudders lash onto the boat also; when they…

Coconut fishing proa

27 January 2019     1 comments.

Wind Tunnel Measurements of the Performance of Canoe Sails From Oceania

 Rigs  Research

In what is no doubt the longest headline ever at Proafile, The Journal of the Polynesian Society has published a paper by Anne di Piazza, Erik Pearthree and Francois Paille on their wind tunnel research results. Apparently inspired by C. A. Marchaj and his wind tunnel testing of various rigs of working sail, including the “crab claw”, the new study expands the range to a wide variety of Pacific rigs:

The primary objectives of this…

Crab Claw Tests

01 October 2018     9 comments.

Pacific Proa for sale

 Dock Ranger  Proas

Here is a rare bird: a 6m (19’-8”) sailing proa for sale. Rigged as a schooner with free-standing masts, the seller states the boat features kick-up rudders, solar-electric propulsion system (range 20+ km), yuloh, ground tackle, easy motion while sailing, fast in light winds, sleeping space for one, maybe two, ample storage lockers, watertight bulkheads, launch carts for vaka and ama, disassembles for transport or storage, sailable as…

LOL proa beach cruiser

02 September 2018     0 comments.