I have a proa problem
When I was a teenager, my father was obsessed with sailboats. Because I was a snotty teenager, I thought his obsession to be silly. I guess I was a pretty typical teenager in that regard.
When I was a young adult, I received a fancy social-anthropological training, and I was obsessed with theories of cultural diffusion of technology. So I was really interested in the diffusion of sailing technologies across Polynesia and Micronesia (although I was roundly mocked by my professors for being mostly uninterested in Melanesia, which was, and still is, a “prestige zone” in anthropological study). But sailing itself was still uninteresting to me - it was just another technology, like ceramics or weaving or pig-duck agriculture or whatever.
Imagine my surprise, as an about-to-be-a-dad, closing-in-on-40 adult, when I discover that I had been infected with a latent sailboat-obsession infection! I can’t stop thinking about sailboats - sailing ‘em, building ‘em, cruising around the world. I’d been a asymptomatic carrier the whole time! Heck, my own unborn son, he is probably already infected too!
But it’s worse than that. Due to my anthropological background, the fact that I’d already paged through Canoes of Oceania at length, my infection presents in a rarely seen form. I can’t be bothered with Western haughty yachties. Monohulls are barely above stinkpots in their level of attraction for me. I’d rather drive a Winnebago. Even typical multi-hull cruising catamarans are almost beneath my notice. I must build a proa!
(Never mind the fact that my sailing experience is limited to a few hours on a Hobie cat and a few desultory experiments with a Klepper folding kayak. Never mind the fact that I hate building stuff with wood. Never mind the fact that it’s completely obvious to me that proa-obsession is an Internet armchair-expert obsession, with actual boat-building proa-sailing people being outnumbered by the looky-loos by something like a thousand to one [and I’m one of that thousand].)
On the plus side: whenever someone says “It’s hard to adjust to the crabclaw rig after a lifetime of experience with the Bermuda rig” I get to say to myself “Oh good, I don’t have to cultivate beginner’s mind, I already have it!”
You do have it bad, Joel. Welcome to the forum.
....
Never mind the fact that it’s completely obvious to me that proa-obsession is an Internet armchair-expert obsession, with actual boat-building proa-sailing people being outnumbered by the looky-loos by something like a thousand to one [and I’m one of that thousand].)
On the plus side: whenever someone says “It’s hard to adjust to the crabclaw rig after a lifetime of experience with the Bermuda rig” I get to say to myself “Oh good, I don’t have to cultivate beginner’s mind, I already have it!”
I hear you. It so happens that I dropped out of grad school because I discovered that I was learning from those who had cut their baby teeth on historians who learned from other historians who had spent their lives reading books in libraries written by other historians who had spent their lives in libraries reading books by other historians who had spent their lives in libraries reading…
Pant, pant…
And I was like, “Dude. Have you ever even picked up a sword? Have you ever gone out with some strong guys and just practiced phalanx tactics? Have you ever had to resist the urge to crap your pants when you realized that guy on the other side of the field shooting in your direction was trying to KILL you?”
So I am, in general, unimpressed by theoretical BS.
The best wisdom I can offer is what it seems you already have: Beginners mind. To that, I would say, If the stories you hear do not involve real world experience in harsh conditions, they are fables. One thing about science is that it does indeed cultivate a skeptical mind. Also, it leads one to find ways to test ideas in experiments that others can duplicate.
That should keep you from running aground on pretty ideas.
Cheers,
Rick
my dieing story ....
I can not .... for any thing .... call it a life !
is just the other way around .....
I had always been infected with water craft >
starting to build a raft for the tiny river I grew up on !
over kayak > stink pot > mono > tri > cat > and many proas ......
models and real ones .....
but because of the responses of good design >
especially real solutions .... by any society on this planet !
I did start out .... on anthropological studies > on social studies .....
till now .... I am wondering > what in heavens .....
would I be sailing from ..... to ..... or for what ?
since on this planet ...... there seems to be >
no departure point > no destination >
no nation > worth .... bothering even about !
the only thing ... I could possibly be thinking about > now ....
would be sailing to an un inhabited island >
and hoping .... no one would come around ..... to annoy me !
with all the authority of his empire behind ......
Welcome Joel!
The best way to advance your proa habit is to go sailing in small boats….or any boat. Don’t disparage monos—proas are more closely related to them than they are to cats or tris. Experience on the water is a great teacher. And proas are just one way to get it!
You might want to make friends with wood, too!
Cheers,
Chris
if I wouldnt have the chance to ever sailing again > on a vector fin proa !
I properbly wouldnt go sailing it all > ever again .....
what for ?
to spoil the experience of having sailed the ultimate ?
it just wouldnt be any good ... it all !
I remember to having traded in a cal 20 on selling my piver tri > decades ago
and I sailed it ones > and it was just awful ....
even though this nimble tri wasnt that much better !
because it had to many a float !
there while > this cal 20 had way to much balast .....
on the other hand .... the recommendation .... on the last post >
to making friends with wood > I can fully agree on !
my next boat if ever .... a 3x version of the present one >
http://blog.proadesign.com
is all wood and ply wood > covered all > to make it last for .... ?
you can look at the center section of this 3x >
at the http://www.proagenesis.org ... site >
going on down to the picture showing a wooden hull on the inside .....
this is fashined from full sheets of 3/16” ply >
laid on down to some lawn > with the sun shinning on the up side
warping ... so you can clue it on the frame and stringer part .... lenght wise !
of those 6x ... 16’ sections !
then you clue all those sections together > strip plank the full lenght with 2x 3/4” fir
cover with glass and .....
the way its looking though ....
this part may never happen > since ... I am finsihed with this despot place
and going on a passage to some un in habited desert islands in the sun .....
sailing > because I can not really install a solar still and planting vegetables there
to some un civilized place .... regularly > to be buying .....
On the plus side: whenever someone says “It’s hard to adjust to the crabclaw rig after a lifetime of experience with the Bermuda rig” I get to say to myself “Oh good, I don’t have to cultivate beginner’s mind, I already have it!”
actually ..... looking at the real facts ...... the western rig > is perfectly suited for a proa >
http://proatech.org/crabclaw.htm
http://proatech.org/western_rig.htm
http://proatech.org/change.gif
http://proatech.org/flow_on_mast.gif
wie bei allem ..... gibt es das alles auch in deutscher aus führung >
für die jenigen > die sich mit der englischen sprache > schwer tun .....
http://www.proatech.de oder
http://de.proatech.org