Proa Luca Antara nearing completion

01 September 2014     Editor    1 Comments.

GALLERY | Click images to enlarge

Luca Antara is a new 20m (65’-6”) proa nearing completion in Sagres, Portugal, and will be ready for sea trials early 2015, according to the owner and builder, Robin Warde. The hulls are strip-planked western red cedar sheathed in fiberglass both inside and out, with extra carbon fibre strengthening where required - mostly around the masts - but also around the beams. Most of the rest of the boat is built of foam. She features a free-standing schooner rig: 17m (55’-7”) carbon fiber wing masts with 61 m2 (657 sq. ft.)  square-top sails. With wings the total sail area per mast becomes 75 m2 (807 sq. ft.) for a total of 150 m2 (1,615 sq. ft.) of upwind sail.

I’ve always wanted to have a sailboat (and told my better half when I proposed to her 35 years ago, that was my dream). I came across Harryproa via a friend and their simplicity of building compared to a catamaran appealed to me, partly because with simplicity came a large reduction in cost. Also it began to occur to me that they were well suited to total electrical generation of power as the windward pod almost never comes under the shadow of the sails, unlike a sailing cat. ~Robin

The Rudders

The asymmetrical rudder/daggerboards will attach to the side of the lee hull, and the rotating kick up attachments are presently being fabricated in Australia by the original engineering designer, Peter of Etamax Engineering. The final concept is based on Rob Denney’s Harryproa®, but I insisted on schooner rigging, and Peter put in a lot of thought designing the rudder/daggerboard attachment such that it will easily kick up under an obstruction (I’m thinking mostly, semi submerged containers, logs, sand banks and semi uncharted coral reefs), and can be set vertical, 20 deg, 40 deg, and 80 deg. The first 2 settings are essentially for the fore rudder. The spring to initiate kick up can also be adjusted to 6 different strength positions. The rudder/daggerboards are also moved by the pintle which can swivel through an adjustable (again!) degree at its top, so that they do not remain vertical when in motion.

The kick up mechanism has been the main sticking point in the design, but we believe we now have a mechanism that works and can easily and quickly be restored to its original position. ~Robin

The name ‘Luca Antara’, is derived from a Portuguese cartographer ‘Eredia’ in Malacca who might have known of Australia before the first Europeans (Dutch) ‘discovered’ it in 1606. An excellent name for a boat designed in Australia and built in Portugal.

Follow the build at Proa Luca Antara. Thanks to Robin for the update, and best of luck with the launch.

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