Proa Luca Antara nearing completion
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…
Der Kanu Mann
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…
Can your trimaran do this?
“Dr. Frank” Smoot is the ultimate DIY sailor. He began his sailboat design career in 2009 with this and has progressed to this in only two years. His latest is the most ingenious small trimaran I’ve ever seen. If he continues at his Moore’s Law rate of improvement he should be building America’s Cuppers out of plywood/epoxy in about 6 months.
I want to make it clear right up front that I am definitely not a professional boat builder…
Golden Gate mini camper
I found this electric-powered mini-camper by architect Jay Nelson at Tiny House Blog. I like the faceted, polyhedron style, all done up in plywood, plexiglass and epoxy. See more of his work (including a mini-camper boat) at JayNelsonArt.com
His “Golden Gate” electric camper car is made from a combination of plywood, glass, fiberglass, expoxy resin, bicycle parts and powered by an electric motor. The Golden Gate measures 96″x54″x64″,…
Dugout road canoe
If “canoe” means a vessel for traveling, then it fits. From Tiny House Blog.
Zol Fox emailed me an interesting article showing some of the logging history of the Northwest and included in the email a couple of pictures of tiny houses built from hollowed out logs. The size of the trees that were taken down in the Northwest 150 years ago is something impressive. We are not likely to see anything like it in this area ever again.
Imagine…
Gary Dierking’s modular canoes
Gary Dierking is a small craft designer inspired by the native canoes of the Pacific islands. He started out with some elegant cedar strip versions of a Micronesian proa and a Hawaiian outrigger, but it is the “three board canoes” that I admire most. From Gary’s site:
In the late 1800’s, when sawn lumber began to appear in Hawaii and other Pacific islands, the local canoe builders immediately saw it as an easier way to build…
Kalapuna
Othmar Karschulin of Multihulls.de has recently launched Kalapuna, an 8m proa of his own design. The new boat is a Pacific proa with crab claw sail, flat bottom hull, and two retractable rudders similar to Russell Brown’s Jzero. Designed for coastal sailing in warm Aegean waters, the boat was built in Othmar’s garden in a small fishing village in Southern Turkey. Construction is plywood, fiberglass and epoxy, with home made spars of…
Apacolypso
Apacolypso is a Pacific Islander inspired outrigger sailing canoe, made from aluminum pontoon boat parts, bamboo and various other locally obtainable items in their native American south, all lashed together with spit and vinegar. Her two crew are about to embark on a voyage of discovery, circumnavigating Florida via the “Saltwater Paddling Trail”, from Pensacola to Fort Clinch State Park, a distance of 1,515 miles.
However,…
A proa for Ariadne
Maestro proa designer John Dalziel has an interesting new project - an 8m proa “workhorse” for the Greek Isles.
On the Greek island of Naxos, fabled home of Dionysus and Ariadne, Helmut Mueller is building an 8 meter proa. Unusually for its size, it is actually a half-displacement model of a 10 meter proa Helmut intends to build. However, we decided it was best to build the 8 meter model first and test it thoroughly. Besides being a…
Micro cruising with Cindy
Miss Cindy is a 16 foot micro cruising catamaran designed and built by Tony Bigras of Vancouver BC in 2008. Tony cruised the little yacht from Baja California, down the Mexican Pacific coast, Nicaragua, Panama, up the Caribbean Sea to Cuba, and finally to Florida - quite the shakedown voyage! I’m reading Tony’s well written and photo documented account of the trip, and am currently somewhere south of Acapulco.
Miss Cindy is on the…
