Articles

Miss Cindy For Sale

 News  Catamarans  Dock Ranger

Miss Cindy, the famous micro-cat cruiser is for sale on Salt Spring Island, B.C. for $3500 US, with her 2 hp Yamaha 2-cycle outboard and a custom trailer.

Designed and built by Tony Bigras in 2008, the 16’ pocket yacht carried Tony on an epic 6000 mile cruise down the Pacific coast of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Read the captain’s log here: Travels with Miss Cindy.

Miss Cindy features a very cool rig: a biplane lug.…

Miss Cindy

04 February 2023     2 comments.

Proa Takes Land Speed Record

 News  Proas

A proa takes the record!

Team New Zealand have smashed the wind-powered land speed record.
Glenn Ashby piloted the radical land yacht Horonuku to 222.4kph (138mph) in just 22 knots of wind on Lake Gairdner in South Australia on Sunday evening.
Conditions finally aligned to better the long-standing record of 202.9km/h recorded by Britain’s Richard Jenkins on March 29, 2009.

Read more here and here.
Much thanks to Paul D. for the…

12 December 2022     0 comments.

1955 Woody Brown Catamaran Back Home in Hawaii

 News  Catamarans  History

Ned McMahon has provided an update on the extremely rare 20’ Woody Brown beach cat that was auctioned off in Wisconsin in 2014:

The little cat was built in Honolulu in 1955 and then shipped to Green Bay Wisconsin where she stayed until 2018. The former owner had passed away and she was donated and then auctioned off.

I bought her sight unseen but knew what she was and drove up to pick her up. All the parts were there and she was in…

Manu Iki

12 May 2022     9 comments.

Keeping the Proa in Epic

 News  Proas  Racing

Ryan Finn has successfully completed his epic voyage from NYC to San Francisco, around Cape Horn, single-handed, in a 36’ plywood/epoxy proa. 93 days after departing New York, he sails into Frisco, under the Golden Gate, flying the ama by Alcatraz, and finally docking at the Richmond Yacht Club.

We proa fans can’t help but feel a bit proud. Well done Ryan.

Jzerro was designed and built by Russell Brown, right here in Port Townsend.

Ryan Finn

22 April 2022     3 comments.

2 Oceans 1 Rock, Around Again

 News  Proas  Racing

UPDATE 3/17/22: Ryan Finn has rounded Cape Horn yesterday, 3/16/22 in the early AM hours, according to his FB post and the tracker. Congratulations Ryan! A great accomplishment for the sailor and also for his proa, JZERRO, originally designed and built by Russell Brown. Cheers!

1/20/22: Ryan Finn has started his second try at breaking the New York to San Francisco sailing record (solo no less) in the JZERRO. The proa departed NYC on…

Ryan Finn departs NYC for San Francisco

20 January 2022     1 comments.

The Polar Pod

 News

This is the Polar Pod - a research platform which is intended to circumnavigate Antarctica by drifting along with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

The craft is technically a multihull sailboat; it has four hulls - one of which is above the waterline.  It’s fitted with ten vane-like sails; these will help the craft avoid encounters with icebergs and the like.

The Polar Pod was originally proposed by the French explorer Jean-Louis…

Polar Pod

29 August 2021     2 comments.

The B&B Mini Trimaran Racer

 News  New Designs  Trimarans

B&B Yacht Designs is continuing their development of a very neat little adventure trimaran. It has pretty much everything you’d want in a pocket tri, nothing you don’t, and all in excellent proportion.

“Features include a roller furling mainsail and headsail for easy reefing and a boom for superior sail control. The amas retract into the center crossbeams to reduce the overall beam for trailering without having to demount the amas. A…

B&B Mini Trimaran

10 July 2021     5 comments.

Proafile Update in Progress

 News  Proas

Ahoy! Proafile has just undergone a big update (EE v.2 to v.6) and is now getting back into shape. Some images are missing but should appear again shortly. If you find any functionality not working, please let me know via the Contact Form, thanks.

I’m uploading an old racing proa concept from 2016 as a test entry, I don’t think I’ve published it before.

R2AK proa - sailplan

28 April 2021     8 comments.

Polish Proa Rally

 News  Proas

No less then ten shunting proas attended this summer’s Proa Rally in Poland. Like a gathering of Ents, such a large number of proas flocking together outside the Pacific is a rare event indeed. Hats off to Janusz Ostrowski and other Poland Proanauts for making it happen.

More info and photos here on FB.

Proa Rally in Poland

13 August 2018     1 comments.