Long time Proa File contributor Chris Ostlind is working up a new ultra-light, hybrid human/wind powered tri based on an A-Class cat hull. Now that’s what we call recycling. Chris says:
I’ve been pretty much out of the design arena for a little over two years now, so I was excited when I was asked to develop a set of amas for a fast hybrid function boat being built by my friend and multihull guru, Mike Leneman. Mike’s boat is based on…
The 32’ Podcat was designed and built by D. Kirk Fuller in the late 1980’s. The iconoclast cat was featured in the March/April 1988 edition of Multihulls Magazine in a story written by Jim Brown. Apparently Jim and I were among the few who liked the design, because few, if any, were ever sold. Innovative in its day, the Podcat featured all composite construction with fiberglass truss beams and a carbon fiber free-standing mast. To…
An overview of the potentials and problems of the remarkable rig of the native Pacific proa.
The Traditional Oceanic sprit rig (aka crab claw) has, in Western eyes, been considered a romantic if not particularly effective rig that most likely compared to the Mediterranean lateen in aerodynamic performance. That is, until famed sailboat aerodynamics researcher C. A. Marchaj published this startling graph in his research paper Planform…
Whenever we drive by a marina, we almost always have to duck in and take a quick look, to see if there are interesting multis lurking about. It’s called walking the dock, and the online version is perusing Craigslist and brokerage ads. When we stumble upon something interesting, we’ll post it here as Dock Ranger.
Sundreamer is the iconic performance cruising cat designed by New Zealand artist David Barker, and built by he and Fiona…
The proa has unique requirements for a sailboat rig, the main one being that it is reversible fore and aft. Since no Western craft have this ability, we who are developing the proa for use here in the West are truly in uncharted waters.
The obvious place to look for inspiration is with the traditional proa rig: the Oceanic sprit, developed over thousands of years of ocean voyaging by the Pacific Islanders. This rig, often called the…
Loïck Peyron: Triple winner of the Ostar, holder of the Jules Verne Trophy, champion of many other races including the Barcelona World Race and the Transat Jacques Vabre, and an America’s Cup helmsman in 2010 (Alinghi) and 2012 (Artemis). In 1986, he finished fifth overall and first in his class in the Route du Rhum (Saint Malo, France to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadalupe), despite a dismasting at the start. “One of my best races”!
After…
Paul Bieker has announced this interesting new design on the Biekerboats blog. The foils resemble what is quickly becoming the standard on high performance race boats such as the A-class. We don’t think the B53 is intended to completely fly both hulls with this set up - the foils reduce displacement and provide dynamic stability.
Introducing the B53 high-performance cruising cat, just beginning construction at Gold Coast Yachts in the…
The illustrated glossary of bilaterally asymmetrical sailboats.
aerohydrofoil Sailboat concept pioneered by Bernard Smith in the 1960’s and described in his seminal work The 40-Knot Sailboat. Smith’s analysis of sailboat kinetics led him to a groundbreaking design involving no traditional sail or hull, instead utilizing solid airfoils and buoyant hydrofoils, arranged in a proa-like formation. Many of today’s proa advocates credit the…
