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Canoes of Oceania

Harmen Hielkema has joined the blogosphere at Canoes of Oceania. Harmen designs and builds proas in New Zealand with an artistic eye and an appreciation for prior native art. From his blog:

Every culture with very few exceptions, somewhere in its past has some connection with the sea and a technology for moving or sailing on it. The sailboat was the first machine to give men freedom of motion without harnessing muscle power. Few of us any longer recognize that the sailboat was truly the first instrument which freed us from bondage to the land ... the waka ama, the first sailboat that could move up wind. This invention made previously inaccessible areas of the world accessible to man, ... Neither do we recall, unless our attention is drawn to it that the sailboat was the first machine to achieve powered motion without rotating parts. Bernard Smith, The 40 Knot Sailboat, Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1963.

The Cat Came Back

Via the Boat Design Forum: Tornado sailors, Steve Lohmayer and Jamie Livingston, going under the team name of Lumpy and Bumpy, have won the annual Watertribe Everglades Challenge in a record time of just under 36 hours.

The Everglades Challenge is a 300+ mile adventure racing event that runs from Tampa Bay's Ft. DeSoto beach to Key Largo. The previous record for the event was set last year with a time of two days, 8 hours, 56 minutes by a 22 foot, double-handed skiff.

Lohmayer and Livingston passed fellow multihuller, Randy Smyth, about two thirds of the way down the course, when his trimaran suffered an unknown breakage, forcing Smyth to retire. Randy then found transportation to the finish line to greet the Tornado team upon their victorious arrival.

It's nice to see a multihull take the cup of this spectacularly challenging race. The Tornado class catamaran is (by multihull standards) an ancient design, from the drawing board of Rod MacAlpine-Downie Jr. 20' x 10' x 233 sq. ft. SA, the boat is one of those rare creations that somehow seems greater than the sum of its parts. A perennial Olympic class, the cat was recently eliminated - causing great dismay among multihull fans.

Sailing Over Melting Ice

Something about this project has captured my imagination - Sébastien Roubinet is attempting to sail the Northwest Passage (Alaska to Greenland) this summer - yea, SAIL it! Thus far, only nuclear subs and diesel-powered ice-breakers have managed the fabled voyage (a voyage that inspired many an explorer, including Captain Cook's Third Voyage (thanks to Peter for the correction), who met his bloody end in Hawaii - "stoned" by the irate islanders as a false god...) but thanks to global warming, Roubinet thinks it might now be possible to navigate the passage via sail!

His ingenious vessel is half sailing catamaran, half ice yacht, and somehow it seems appropriate to see Captain Cook's dream realized by an artifact from the culture that played such a big part in his life, and death.

New From Selway Fisher

Prolific English designer Paul Fisher at Selway Fisher has some new stock canoe designs of interest to Proafile readers:

18' stitch and tape Waka Ama (Hawaiian outrigger canoe) LOA 18' (5.49m); Main hull beam 1'7" (0.49m); Overall beam 5'11" (1.8m) Approx. wht 140 lbs (64kg) in 6mm ply.

Tikopian 24 - "based on the 18' Waka Ama and uses the same stitch and tape plywood construction process. She has 4 seats plus stowage compartments in the ends of the canoe but can be fitted out in various ways - ie. with more seats and storage. The Tikopian 24 uses the same float/outrigger as the Waka Ama and comes with the sail rig of the Dragon 40 for those who want to go for a full platform and sail option. The hull can be built in 2 boltable halves and two hulls could be built to form a high volume catamaran. LOA 24' (7.32m); Main hull beam 2' (0.61m); Overall beam 6' (1.83m)

SIG 45 Performance Cruiser

Le Breton Yachts is promoting an interesting project: the SIG 45 performance cruising catamaran. Interesting to me, because it is one of the first legit multihull attempts to play in the Wally sector: very refined, very stylish, very fast, and very expensive. The design guns are high calibre: Van Peteghem Lauriot Prevost (VPLP), Bjorn Johansson for the interior, and even Bruno Peyron as technical consultant. The impetus or the yard behind the project is not disclosed on the web site.

The yacht is far from the usual "condomaran" offering. It offers real speed, and it should be a serious competitor in the harbors of the Cote D'Azure. It should also have no trouble fitting in with the other sailing "Ferraris" on the quay, it looks the part - featuring a sleek profile, flush/hidden hardware, no lifelines, and teak decking. The boat will be an interesting multihull test of this very exclusive market.

Minimising the impact to the environment both during construction and during use is one of the project's stated goals. To that end, all wood products are sourced through Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified suppliers. Power for the house systems will come from a 14kW Glacier Bay generator, which will also power the twin auxiliary electric motors.

Amazon by Prao

More proof that the French know how to spend a holiday better than anyone: Marc and Matthieu emailed to share their blog and pics about a recent cruise up the Amazon river on a native canoe modified into a sailing prao (French for proa). Note the cool bamboo ama. Note the most excellent hats. In French.

No School Like the Old School

John Bruton reports the launch of his 32' Marshall Islands style proa in Cape Fear, North Carolina. The big canoe was built with no plans other than referencing photographs and books. The hull is built in two stages: a sharpie-like plywood section from waterline to sheer, and then the hull below waterline built like a surfboard, all hand-shaped urethane foam glassed with polyester resin. The hull is self bailing. Great job, John!

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Hula Kai

Frank Russell found this 1963 vintage C/S/K catamaran at a California dock in 2003 - in need of some love. He took it home to Long Island, and undertook a complete restoration - the fine result was relaunched June 2005, and christened Hula Kai. Read about the project here.

Big Traditional Canoe in Tahiti

In Tahiti, a twenty meter va'a motu named 'Te Ara Taura' is being built to an ancient pattern in Koa wood. "I want to revive traditional navigation in the Polynesian triangle and encourage the vacant youth to travel in the wake of their ancestors", says Clement Pito, originator of the project. The outrigger canoe will set sail in July 2006. Tahiti Press

Wharram Islander 55 Launched

Check out the new pics of Wharram's latest - launched in Indonesia. The yacht will most likely sail to Europe around the Cape of Good Hope, to be used for charter in the Mediterranean and/or Caribbean. It reminds me of a double-hulled Turkish gulet or Arab dhow. James Wharram Designs Page 3 of 5 pages « First  <  1 2 3 4 5 >