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Gary Dierking on a Sail About

Gary Dierking, the New Zealand based author of Building Outrigger Sailing Canoes and one of the primary nodes of modern appreciation and adoption of ancient Pacific canoe forms, is back in Fiji, doing his delightful version of backpacking/cruising - which entails flying to an island of your choice and building a small, sailing magic carpet, using indigenous material when possible, and where that fails, ship the epoxy ahead. Then sail about, soak up the inimitable island culture, and as a sort of "balance of payment", leave the canoe. A creative alternative to Carnival Cruise Lines, IMHO.

Tahiti Douche

A 58' vintage Atlantic racing proa has become available in the Lesser Antilles. 'Tahiti Douche' (also campaigned as 'Lessives Saint Marc') was launched in June 1980, to compete in short-handed races across the Atlantic such as the TwoSTAR. One of the few racing proas to survive the carnage of that period, he's been sailing ever since in the idyllic trade winds of St. Martin.

'Tahiti Douche' was designed by Daniel Charles of Belgium for French yachtsman Alain Gliksman, and was built using the WEST wood/eopxy system by Starberry Ltd. of Ipswich, England.

We decided not to take the risk of too wildly diverting from the 'Cheers' concept, with which designer Newick had so brilliantly proved his ability.

Like 'Cheers', the boat has identical hulls in length and beam, two "dagger-rudders" and a free-standing schooner rig. The windward pod guards against capsize from being caught aback, as well as providing a bit more interior volume.

'Tahiti Douche' has always been one of my favorites, and the sleek proa is still reported as wicked fast. It would be interesting to know what modifications and improvements have been made in those 27 years, and I'd love to see recent photos. Contact the seller through Bob Wise at Boat Bits blog.

Tahiti Douche (as launched)

LOA: 55'-9"/17m
LWL: 46'-0"/14m
BOA: 27'-6"/8.4m
Displacement: 5,885 lbs/2,670 kg
Sail Area: 784 sq. ft./36.5 s.m., plus selected headsails

Larger pics after the jump.

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June Launchings

After an extensive refit (that included sawing the hull in half and adding a few feet), Harmen Hielkema's Toroa is back in his element, testing a new crab claw rig. Toroa steers by weight shift and adjusting the immersion of two daggerboards. Read more at Canoes of Oceania.




Gaia's Dream. Only one year after construction began, a 70' modern Pacific proa has been successfully launched in NSW Australia. The innovative variable geometry rig should be in place in August, according to the builder, Inigo Wijnen. See more at Inigo's site.



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Phil Bolger, 1927-2009

Philip Bolger took his life yesterday, and poor as I am at eulogies, Philip was a man worth eulogizing. Perhaps the most influential small boat designer in the world, Phil encouraged and inspired a host of would be builders and designers to pick up pencil and paper, plywood and epoxy, and get to work on their dreams. His design attention ranged across the board, and even though his boats were sometimes called homely, it is perhaps only because the viewer hadn't peered deeply enough to see the mathematical beauty of his parsimonious approach. In that sense, Phil was a devout modernist, and if a cube or a brick made the most sense for a certain vessel, then the eye would soon enough adjust.

Phil even once designed a proa, which appeared in the Jan 1990 edition of Small Boat Journal. In his usual style, the design was original and thought provoking. The rig, a sort of high aspect ratio, fully battened square sail, was a brilliant effort at harmonizing the unique geometry of the proa with the rig, in that it was symmetrical fore and aft, but asymmetrical side to side. The virtues and faults of what has become known as the "Bolger proa rig" has become a source of much discussion and even controversy among proa developers, which in hindsight, perfectly fit the muse of Phil Bolger - Inspiring and controversial.



His death has hit me harder than I would have thought, considering I never met him, and I know I'm not alone. It is curious that a man with no children has left so many "sons". Fair winds, Philip Bolger.

More here.

Lunada Design

Chris Ostlind, who has contributed several great articles to Proafile, has been blogging and sharing his work at Lunada Design for a while now, but it's news to me, at least. So in case you haven't been there yet, go check out his body of work, which includes all manner of small plywood stitch-n-glue canoes, trimarans, outriggers, cats and more. It's like small boat Candyland, so consider yourself forewarned.

Proas by James Brett

Marine Designer James Brett of Auckland, New Zealand has updated his day sailing proa with a new polytarp junk rig. He reports the 16 footer with modern, high aspect junk rig can match a Laser in upwind pointing angle and has serious power downwind. James has also completed a design for a 16m cruising proa while at Massey University, and has built a sweet 1m R/C proa that shunts on a dime.

The model has demonstrated self-righting ability via a streamlined lee pod, and also uses twin counter-rotating ogive section foils for steering and lateral plane. Ogive section foils are symmetrical fore and aft, so ideally suited to a proa.

The rudders are very interesting, because ogive proa rudders usually have the shafts running through the center of the rudder, which cause the foil to be "over-balanced". The fact that the rudders are joined and counter-rotate may ameliorate this tendency, delivering a null total result, and I'd like to hear opinions on that, anyone? In any case, at the scale of this model proa, the effect is easily overcome by the servo motor, and the proa shunts more quickly than any I have seen. As I said... sweet.

Sailrocketry

"To one who has turned lifeless materials into a thing alive and forced it to do his bidding against the resisting forces of nature in silence, without fuel and without defiling air or water, there can never be anything more wonderful than the sailboat. "The sailboat never offends the senses of fish, fowl or man. To make it move faster is to make it more a thing of freedom and beauty."
--Bernard Smith, "The 40-Knot Sailboat," 1963

When I was a kid, I read 'The 40-knot Sailboat' by Bernard Smith, who introduced me to proas and sailing hydrofoils and all kinds of amazing ideas about boats that fired my imagination in the same way that race cars or starships fire others. Flying over water, using only the power of the wind... it seemed like magic. Magic that might actually work...

I even made a balsa wood model of an aerohydrofoil when I was fourteen, which didn't go anywhere at all, let alone fly. Discouraged, I soon turned my attention to baseball, but fortunately, others kept at it. Paul Larsen is behind the Vestas Sailrocket speed sailing proa - a project inspired by Bernard Smith.

Vestas Sailrocket averaged 47.36 knots (nearly 55 mph) over a 500-meter course on Dec. 3, and it just goes to show that practice makes perfect. It's a brilliant name, since Bernard Smith was a rocket scientist.

"I am now safe in the knowledge that no one can dispute that this is a very viable concept of enormous potential. In fact, I think it is perhaps one of the most significant speed sailing craft of all time. The concept behind this craft is future proof." --Paul Larsen

First Flight

A working hapa model has finally been accomplished by Frenchman Luc Armant. It is the realization of the theoretically perfect sailboat: an airfoil and hydrofoil, tied together by a single line in tension. The massless sailboat has long been the dream of sailing pioneers from Bernard Smith's aerohydrofoil to D. Costes' chien de mer (seadog) to the hapas of J. Hagedoorn. The achievement cannot really be overstated, IMHO. Well done, Mr. Armant! The device is described in this (massive) PDF file. I look forward to the English translation.

Three CHEERS

The French love all things historical and nautical, so it makes perfect sense that they have become the curators of the first Atlantic proa in the world: the “giant killer” CHEERS. Today, he is kept in Port Saint Louis by Vincent Besin and the French government, which has declared him a "monument historique", one of less than 100 small craft, and the only multihull. CHEERS was relaunched last week, at a ceremony which included his barefoot designer, Dick Newick.

40 years ago, CHEERS arrived third in the 1968 Observer Single-Handed Transatlantic Race, beaten by only two monohulls, the 56’ Sir Thomas Lipton and the 50’ Voortrekker. It was a bellwether moment for multihulls, yet ironically, the proa has been virtually ignored in what became the Great Multihull Takeover, with greyhound trimarans dominating the race course and charter cat galleons dominating the “gold run”.

CHEERS was the inspired production of three men: the designer Richard C. Newick, called the “Wizard of Maine”; the sailor Tom Follett; and the financier, Jim Morris. The Dreamer, the Doer, and the Patron - a frequently successful trinity.

The French interest in such a uniquely “American” enterprise is not without precedent, consider the Statue of Liberty. Vincent Besin, you are a keeper of the flame, and for that, I salute you!

"I notice that you are taking steps to enable the crew to right the vessel when it has capsized, but my committee are more interested in any steps you may take to stop the capsizing in the first place. We are still of the opinion that to race along at 25 knots in between periodically capsizing is not a proper way to cross the Atlantic..."

--Race Committee letter, October, 1967: Royal Western Yacht Club of England

Pocket Envy

I just got some spy pics of the new Chesapeake Light Craft Pocket Cruiser abuilding at Two Daughters Boatworks in Maine. I guess I can't really call them spy shots because CLC president and designer John Harris sent them in, but it sounds good. John is one of those guys who couldn't draw an ugly boat if he wanted to, and this little ship is one of his best.
14'-10" LOA, plywood stitch-n-glue construction. Beautiful!

Check out John's video of the project. More pics after the jump.

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