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…
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 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…
