Der Kanu Mann
GALLERY | Click images to enlarge
Der Kanu Mann is René Richard Hohmann, a German boatbuilder/artist who is building Pacific proas like Stradivarius built violins. If you’re into wood working perfection and sailing canoes (and who isn’t?) then these examples are masterpieces. See more of his work at Derkanumann.de
There is a curious German affinity for the canoes of Oceania that perhaps harken back to an unwanted gift:
In 1900-1930, one in twenty of all postcards of Fiji featured canoes and a famous large Samoan ‘alia (double-hulled voyaging canoe) photographed by AJ Tattersall and constructed as a gift for the German Kaiser at the turn of the century, and subsequently left to rot on a Samoan beach, featured consistently in magazine articles, books, reports and encyclopedia about Samoa. ~Iconography and identity – the appropriation of crab-claw sails in Oceania
While the Kaiser saw no value in the proa, his countrymen have seen otherwise.
