Designers

25 January 2023     3 comments

Comparative Analysis of Multihulls

Robert Zabukovec, the designer/builder of SIDECAR who’s story was published in the previous article, has kindly agreed to share some of his design methods with us here at Proafile. These are tools that anyone with spreadsheet or CAD software can use. —Editor

Comparative Analysis

Most sailors regard proas as weird and freakish, and a few, the most wonderful thing in sailing. Proas have a mythical fantasy status, but they are just…

 Designers  Proas  Research

23 July 2022     2 comments

The Canoes of NG Yacht Design

Papeete Tahiti based Nicolas Gruet - NG Yacht Design has an interesting portfolio that includes some now famous outrigger canoes of classic Tahitian form but updated with modern ideas about yacht design. See Outrigger Canoe 50 and Va’a Motu 30. They had me with the gaff rigs, but that ama on the 30 is perfect. Their latest outrigger: Pirogue 39’ VIP, is an aluminum power excursion vessel with wave-piercing bows. Again, a really nice…

 Designers  Outrigger Canoes

14 December 2021     0 comments

The Future Past of the Das Brothers

A continuation of this July 5 article about the Das Brothers. As I noted earlier, the twin brothers Rudolf and Robbert Das had a long career as technical illustrators, architectural designers, authors and futurologists. Since then, Proafile contributor Paul Dunlop has found and acquired five rare volumes of Das books that were published in a series called Toekomst (“Future”), between 1983 and 2008.

Paul has scanned and uploaded the…

 Designers  History

Ring Wing Sport Planes

05 July 2021     3 comments

Das Prauw - The Proa of the Future

This month’s Woodenboat magazine has a nice article about Robbert Das, the Dutch illustrator and futurist. Naturally, they only show his great 3D cutaway drawings of old wooden boats, but holy smokes! A little googling and you come up with the other stuff!

The twin brothers Rudolf and Robbert Das had a long career as technical illustrators, architectural designers, authors and futurologists. I found a thread here about some of their…

 Designers  History  Proas

Das Proa

08 May 2018     1 comments

The Designs of Lorenzo Acompañado II

Lorenzo Acompañado II is a talented Filipino designer and boatbuilder who is exploring the traditional native double outrigger canoe in modern materials. He has designed and built a 6m (20’) sailing Paraw, a car-top Bigiw, and is currently building a decidedly modern version of the Bangka called the L20 Beach Trimaran. His designs include a 12m (40’) Balangay outfitted for dive charter and a 7.23 m (24’) Vinta.

See his work at Samal…

 Designers

04 March 2018     0 comments

Nick Beck and the Holopuni sailing canoe

Nick Beck tells Patagonia about the creation and development of the Holopuni sailing canoe: A Thirty-Five-Year Voyage Back in Time.

In May 1981, I set out in a home-built Hawaiian sailing canoe from South Point on the island of Hawai’i to my home on Kaua’i. It was an adventure that would take me from the southern-most to the northern-most point of the Hawaiian Islands. I named my canoe Holopuni, “to sail everywhere”, and I’ve been…

 Designers  Outrigger Canoes

The Holopuni Sailing Canoe

12 August 2017     1 comments

Beauty Matters: the boats of David Trubridge

Celebrated New Zealand artist and designer David Trubridge has turned his creative attention back to boats, where it all began. Trubridge studied naval architecture in his native England, and sailed his small family on a journey that took them to the Caribbean and Polynesia, working their way from place to place, eventually landing and settling in New Zealand. His wooden furniture and lighting designs are now exhibited and sold in…

 Designers

11 August 2017     0 comments

Gary Dierking Interview

Duckworks has a nice interview with one of our favorite canoe designer/builders.

When did you become a boat designer and what was your first real design? I started drawing boats when I was about eight years old, and I built my first one at fifteen from a photo in a magazine. That first project was an eight foot lake scow with an underbody similar to the current Puddle Ducks…

 Designers

Tamanu

22 March 2017     0 comments

Bedard on the Everglades Challenge 2017

Tarpon Springs FL based smallcraft designer/builder JF Bedard has posted an informative recap of his experience racing the 2017 Everglades Challenge in his self-designed and built micro-cruiser: RoG. Great for any fan of long-distance challenges like the EC and the R2AK. Besides, I am especially taken with Bedard’s diminutive racer, its distinct lack of multiple hulls notwithstanding. Bedard Yacht Design.

 Designers  Racing