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New “affordable” Corsair Sprint 750

"The new Corsair Sprint 750 takes performance and fun to the next level: it offers all the performance and flexibility of a beach catamaran with none of the annoyances... and incredibly easy to afford at about $49,000." Ya know, I could build a better beach cat too if I could charge 3 times the price... Corsair Marine

Flaquita Plans Available

Joe Henry says that plans for his sweet little 'Flaquita' epoxy/ply outrigger are now available. They consist of 8 sheets at 24"X 36". Also a CD with about 45 construction photos. $100 US dollars, includes shipping. See his site for lots of pics and a new account of a cruise through the Mexican Yucatan. Flaquita

Kayak Sail Rig Reviews

It's odd that the modern canoe/kayak phenom is so divorced from sailing - especially since the original 19th century devotees of the sport were so into it. That seems to be changing. "Wind: the alternative energy source for the self-propelled" - Sea Kayaker Magazine review 13 sails in the April 2005 issue. Sea Kayaker Magazine

Power vs. Sail, Takers vs. Leavers

I've been reading up on theories about the ancient origins of our modern ideas. It turns out we're not as modern as we like to think. Sure, our technology is awesome compared to an early Mesopotamian farmer, but our attitudes about the world and our place in it aren't all that different. I had "The Ishmael Experience" in the winter of 2002. "The Ishmael Experience" is what happens after you read Daniel Quinn's award winning novel: Ishmael. Quinn basically deconstructs our culture's entire sense of self, and when he's done, what was up is down, and what was right is wrong.

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Six-Man Outrigger to Sail Pacific Rim

Six sailors from Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Tahiti hope to revive the sailing legacy of the Austronesian people by making a grueling 16-month journey around the Pacific rim in an outrigger canoe. The journey is scheduled to begin this May and conclude in August 2006. "We're calling this adventure a journey of Pacific Renaissance, as Austronesian people already had a great sailing culture several thousands of years ago," said Chen Chin-kuo. Taiwan News

A Bloody Fine First Day With a Crab Claw II

Bleeding while you are swimming is disarming and kind. What seems to be water dripping in my face is actually something horrific -- that it never stopped dripping should have clued me in, but I'm still pondering that nth dimensional paradigm. Somewhere a baby is crying. I know this sounds like a cliche because, in all the bad novels, as soon as something interesting happens, there is silence, and always, "Somewhere, a dog was barking." The thing about cliches is that they're true, they're the condensed wisdom of society, but we English professors never tell our students this.

The baby is crying, and they repeat, "Man, you're bleeding!" I say stupidly, "My foot's stuck." And it is. I'm floating in a pool of blood, my eyes are covered with a strange film that I later know was blood, and I'm drinking ounces of my blood, and it will continue for quite a while because I'm also tasting Plavix, a blood-thinner, one of my medications. Yet, I'm happy that I wore the life jacket today, because at least I'm floating while -- yes -- the Nutcracker Effect. I didn't have the words to respond better than "My foot is stuck," nor could Hollywood have scripted a more unbelievable plot.

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A Bloody Fine First Day With a Crab-Claw I

My girlfriend tells the story about her father who saw someone waste a few hundred dollars on some unworkable scheme, and he wisely observed it had been money well spent because "how often can you get a lesson that lasts a life-time for just a few hundred bucks?" My own father, well, I think he would just stand there shaking his head, perhaps with a slight grin. I can picture the ghosts of both fellows making their observations on the day I became a True Proa Sailor. I wrote most of the following narrative (some edits came later) late at night in a blood-stained shirt, hospital pants, no underwear, and a forehead fastened back together with Krazy Glue (really). I will be spending money replacing various things that fell to lake-bottom, floated away, or was stolen by a shoreside vulture after the ambulance took me away -- go ahead, shake your head, grin: perhaps it will be money well-spent.

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Nature’s Crisis

Dave Foreman : In December of 1776, the American Revolution was in its darkest hour. In response, Tom Paine wrote his first "Crisis" paper: "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." We need Tom Paine conservationists in our dark hour. Let us not apologize for loving wild Nature, for caring about other species, for speaking the truth. Reach out to others. Make deals when they are good deals. But let us not be frightened and browbeaten into appeasement. Counterpunch

Turbo : Hydrofoil Daysailor

Turbo (a trendy name back in the 80's heyday of the Porsche 911 Turbo) was my project one quarter. (School of Industrial Design, University of Washington. The Dean - James Hennessey, was way ahead of the curve concerning sustainable design. He wrote a book called Nomadic Furniture in 1973 that was full of simple, light, resource/space efficient, and recycled furniture designs -- I couldn't have been LESS interested at the time... ). The project was mostly concerned with model making and presentation - and was fortunately never graded on whether the idea was actually feasible or not.

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Cheap, Capable Cruisers III

JOHN DALZIEL: We seem to have found a few ineluctable limitations as to just how far one can stretch the traditional Micronesian proa so it can meet modern Western demands. With a modicum of care we can stay well within those limits and come out with a good, inexpensive cruiser. We've also seen that there is a fairly clear trade-off point beyond which it makes more sense to build a catamaran than a proa. The question is, where can we take it from here?

MICHAEL SCHACHT: The Pacific proa is unique in that it appears to have near monohull self-righting ability, yet without the heavy ballast. That means it can bypass the displacement wave drag of monohulls - like a cat, and yet it can sail closer to its true potential more of the time - like a monohull. Best of both worlds? Only if you are willing to make sacrifices in other areas (such as extreme length), mother nature can't be cheated.

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