Daikon - the Raid Proa
GALLERY | Click images to enlarge
Blair Cowan reports on progress building and sailing his 21’ lug rigged schooner proa. The construction took one year, from May 2021 to May 2022. He has sailed the boat all season and plans to sail the Texas 200 in 2023 and next year’s Everglades Challenge. Blair writes:
DAIKON - The raidboat proa. A shunting outrigger canoe built for inland lake sailing and coastal adventure camping. The 21’ self-bailing Ojibwe-Chippewa inspired canoe is 4mm marine ply with 11mm plascore. The 16’ ply ama was built using CLC Night-Heron kayak plans, and planes if not overloaded. Both hulls are stitch-n-glue with epoxy, fiberglass and kevlar. He has XPS catastrophe foam throughout both hulls, ample gear storage, a buoyant turtle resistant rig, kick-up leeboards and rudders, a sturdy tent deck, and a battle-ax AD scull. The 155 sq. ft. lug schooner slab reefs easily and can be sailed with a single sail. Fully rigged up is 350 lb., not including the ama-mounted expedition cooler with sufficient beer for righting moment.
The original idea started as a Everglades Challenge worthy craft, like a mobile floating chickee (Everglades NP camping platform). The biggest draw to proas has been the paradigm shift from tacking boats to the wildly different symmetry of a pacific proa. Like telemark skiing, whitewater canoeing, and trad rock climbing, the challenge of learning something new has been the most fun.
Blair says he got lots of advice, info and pointers from the forums at boatdesign.net.
Photos from an end of the season trip to Topsail Island, North Carolina.
Much thanks to Blair for the submission!
Interesting. I’ve no current fire in my belly for another run at the EC
but it would be great to have two 21’ shunting proa schooners at next
years Texas 200. That’s assuming I get the Thing done and trialed out
before the event 😉. I do have my second generation AD scull done.