A loaf of bread and proa
Epicure. noun. a person who takes particular pleasure in fine food and drink.
Belgian-French yacht designer Daniel Charles (Tahiti Douche) has launched a new proa, designed for sailors of “the third age” AKA “active seniors” (Charles is 61). The 38’-7” (14.5m) Epicure is intended to be a comfortable floating home suitable for a three week cruise. I know little else about the project, except other primary dimensions are - beam: 23’-6”…
Provocative proa art
There are no more audacious multihull sailors, designers and builders on the planet than the French. The modern, post-war multihull boom may have begun in the U.S., but in 1936, it was Frenchmen Eric de Bisschop and Joseph Tatiboet who first pitched a tent on a secluded, shady spot of Waikiki Beach, to build Kaimiloa. The “mad Frenchmen” sailed safely back to France, via the Cape of Good Hope, and the French have been mad about…
Documenting the history of modern multihulls - before it’s gone
The Searunner Rides Again
One of the nicer surprises of 2010 has been the resurgence of multihull pioneer Jim Brown. His classic The Case for the Cruising Trimaran is available once again, and his personal memoirs of modern multihull history and lore are coming soon. The forward to Volume One is pure Jim Brown, and if this is just a taste to wet the appetite, consider mine wetted:
If the ancient outrigger canoe seems to us now an…
Bernard Smith, 1910-2010
Bernard Smith passed away on Feb. 12, three months short of his 100th birthday. He invented a radical sailboat called the aerohydrofoil that had neither a “sail” nor a “boat”, and he outlined his design in his 1963 book, “The 40-Knot Sailboat” . I must have checked that book out of my local library about 20 times! Thanks to Paul Dunlop for the news.
The passing of sailing’s true rocket scientist | Mr. Smith’s Amazing Sailboats
Phil Bolger, 1927-2009
Philip Bolger took his life yesterday, and poor as I am at eulogies, Philip was a man worth eulogizing. Perhaps the most influential small boat designer in the world, Phil encouraged and inspired a host of would be builders and designers to pick up pencil and paper, plywood and epoxy, and get to work on their dreams. His design attention ranged across the board, and even though his boats were sometimes called homely, it is perhaps only…
Spark: a three-hulled Rozinante
Spark is from the drawing board of Richard Newick - which he describes as a “three-hulled Rozinante”, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s as if the spark of Herreshoff’s inspiration was passed along and reinterpreted through Newick, resulting in this outstandingly elegant trimaran. These images are of Jim Conlin’s Damfino, launched last June in Westport Point, MA. She seems a perfect steed for sailing the coast, perhaps tilting at a few…
The proas of J. S. Taylor
The proa designs of Australian designer J. S. Taylor have been the subject of many an interesting discussion on the proa_file list over the years. Taylor, an East European immigrant to Oz in the 50’s, had several of his provocative articles published in the yachting press of the day, both locally and internationally. Taylor was one of the first to advocate the proa as a serious yachting alternative, and his imperious tone combined with…
The relaunch of CHEERS
The French love all things historical and nautical, so it makes perfect sense that they have become the curators of the first Atlantic proa in the world: the “giant killer” CHEERS. Today, he is kept in Port Saint Louis by Vincent Besin and the French government, which has declared him a “monument historique”, one of less than 100 small craft, and the only multihull. CHEERS was relaunched last week, at a ceremony that included his…
Canoes of Oceania
Harmen Hielkema has joined the blogosphere at Canoes of Oceania. Harmen designs and builds proas in New Zealand with an artistic eye and an appreciation for prior native art. From his blog:
Every culture with very few exceptions, somewhere in its past has some connection with the sea and a technology for moving or sailing on it. The sailboat was the first machine to give men freedom of motion without harnessing muscle power. Few of us…
The yacht design firm of C/S/K
An appreciation of the catamarans designed and built by the firm of C/S/K—or Rudy Choy, Warren Seaman and Alfred Kumalae.
The yacht design partnership of C/S/K was responsible for some of the finest ocean sailing catamarans ever built. The firm was active in the 1960’s - a decade of creative innovation everywhere - but especially in the amped up cultural milieu that was California.
They rode a remarkable wave of opportunity that…
