Majuro Day Canoe Race 2019
Full cut of the 2019 Majuro Day canoe race in Majuro Atoll, Republic of Marshall Islands. Race was held February 23, 2019 at Dalap Beach Park in Majuro. Canoe Neen Annan from Uliga bested a fleet of 16 racing craft. These boats are full-on proas, not tacking outriggers. They shunt rather than tack, and you can witness the awkward operation starting 0:58 at the first mark rounding. Besides that, there isn’t much in sailing that can…
The Bug-Out Boat
As I am confined to quarters for the duration, pacing the perimeter of my isolation in endless circles, my imagination is drawn to devices of freedom and escape. Freedom of the seas is a perpetually compelling and romantic idea so here I present a Bug Out Boat for 2020.
The basic concept is millennia old: tie (or ‘catamaran’) a few logs together into a rudimentary raft, build a platform above with some shelter and a device to catch…
Proa Build in New Caledonia
Franck Meidinger is building a proa in New Caledonia. La MANGUE BLEUE appears to be a large cruising Pacific proa, intending to employ a crab claw schooner rig! He says:
I’m currently building a proa in New Caledonia. The hull is completed by now and I’m longing for the (COVID 19) lockdown to stop in order to launch. I could work on the rig (eventually crab claw) if I had some materiel but shops are closed. Not even allowed to harvest…
Mini Cargo Ferry Prototype
Mini Cargo Ferry prototyping and development in the Marshall Islands, by Harry Proa. This is the first step on the road to getting the zero emissions 24m cargo ferry built and hauling passengers and freight.
The mini cargo ferry was designed in response to a need to replace the outboard powered fibreglass skiffs which are ubiquitous in the Pacific. These boats are expensive to run, difficult to maintain and have almost completely…
Alu Proa Build in Belgium
I was pleased to find this email from Ewaut Van Wassenhove in my inbox:
It was a while ago but through your website I came across plans for Madness by Chesepeake Light Craft and now I’m building a scaled up version of the plans in aluminum in Belgium.
I’m super stoked about the design and I’m making an effort to make weekly updates on YouTube about the whole build.
I recently made a YouTube explainer video or an effort to explain…
The Pjoa Folk
The folks at Pjoa.eu have a nice Christmas gift for us: plans for a plywood-epoxy stitch and glue version of their beach-cruiser sailing proa:
Let us proudly share that we have made available an extensive plans set for proa PJOA FOLK. By “extensive” – they contain e.g. step-by-step building and rigging instructions. Knowing where a lot of proanauts find significant problems, we want to save them a lot of time, so another part is soon…
Outrigger Fishing Boat for New Guinea
Paul Cheevers has written in to share his new project: a 7m (23’) sailing outrigger design to be produced in fiberglass and used on the islands of Papua New Guinea by the locals as an alternative to the ubiquitous outboard-powered banana boats. The design is called VAN-2, from the free plans offered at the CFP (Coastal Fisheries Programme) website. Paul writes:
“After seeing hundreds of Yamaha 40hp banana boats (pangas) over the…
LaShunk from Balkan Shipyards Update
Rael Dobkins of Balkan Shipyards sends us a video update on his shunting junk rigged proa:
WE MADE IT! The new proa rig from Balkan Shipyards. Pacific proa ‘Make
O’Break’, LaShunk rigged and showing off….. No secrets! Keep Shunting -BSY.
Congratulations BSY. Reconciling the world’s easiest handled rig to the world’s most difficult hull platform. Who’d a thunk?
Rael’s driving concern with this rig is shifting the CE (center of…
Poor-Poise: A Hardware Store Outrigger
A reader sends in his account of repurposing plastic canoe and kayak with hardware store parts to obtain a sailing outrigger. A Home Deproa! Thanks for the submission. -Ed
My name is Mason, I’m 25, and I work as a preschool teacher. I first started sailing at summer camp when I was growing up, and I’ve been looking for a way to enjoy it as an adult ever since. A few years ago I bought a 1978 16’ Hobie Cat catamaran, but I ended up…
