Mini Cargo Ferry Prototype
Mini Cargo Ferry prototyping and development in the Marshall Islands, by Harry Proa. This is the first step on the road to getting the zero emissions 24m cargo ferry built and hauling passengers and freight.
The mini cargo ferry was designed in response to a need to replace the outboard powered fibreglass skiffs which are ubiquitous in the Pacific. These boats are expensive to run, difficult to maintain and have almost completely…
Alu Proa Build in Belgium
I was pleased to find this email from Ewaut Van Wassenhove in my inbox:
It was a while ago but through your website I came across plans for Madness by Chesepeake Light Craft and now I’m building a scaled up version of the plans in aluminum in Belgium.
I’m super stoked about the design and I’m making an effort to make weekly updates on YouTube about the whole build.
I recently made a YouTube explainer video or an effort to explain…
The Pjoa Folk
The folks at Pjoa.eu have a nice Christmas gift for us: plans for a plywood-epoxy stitch and glue version of their beach-cruiser sailing proa:
Let us proudly share that we have made available an extensive plans set for proa PJOA FOLK. By “extensive” – they contain e.g. step-by-step building and rigging instructions. Knowing where a lot of proanauts find significant problems, we want to save them a lot of time, so another part is soon…
LaShunk from Balkan Shipyards Update
Rael Dobkins of Balkan Shipyards sends us a video update on his shunting junk rigged proa:
WE MADE IT! The new proa rig from Balkan Shipyards. Pacific proa ‘Make
O’Break’, LaShunk rigged and showing off….. No secrets! Keep Shunting -BSY.
Congratulations BSY. Reconciling the world’s easiest handled rig to the world’s most difficult hull platform. Who’d a thunk?
Rael’s driving concern with this rig is shifting the CE (center of…
The Baltic Tepuke
A Tepuke sails on the Baltic. This seems like fulfillment of the ancient prophecy “When a crab claws the northern sea then the dreaded Old Ones shall return.” Or something.
—
Thanks to Yurek for the submission!
Mini Cargo Ferry from Harryproa
Here’s another cool project from Harryproa:
The mini cargo ferry was designed in response to a need to replace the outboard powered fibreglass skiffs which are ubiquitous in the Pacific. These boats are expensive to run, difficult to maintain and have almost completely destroyed the islanders boat building and sailing skills.
Taking a step back to near stone-age construction materials of plywood/epoxy, the boats are as…
Sailing canoe models by Francis Pimmel
Francis Pimmel makes pretty darn gorgeous models of Pacific sailing canoes, from the famous Hawaiian voyaging canoe recreation Hokule’a to flying proas of Micronesia. Order one for your boardroom.
Much thanks to Paul D. for the submission!
A proa with no name
UNNAMED PROA is a near 60’ racing design with a crab claw schooner rig! It’s the work of Jeremy Fischer of Martinique, who built the EQUILIBRE some 10 years back. I know little about the design except that it was originally intended to enter the Route du Rhum. The very narrow hull features an extreme wave-piercing bow, no doubt a nod to the submarine like experience of sailing the boat fast in a seaway 😉. A few of the construction pics…
Jacknife
Ian Aitken’s JACKNIFE is “the world’s first 11m, folding, trailerable proa with freestanding wing mast”.
Although inspired by Rob Denney’s Harryproas, the craft was designed and built by Ian and ‘Barn Job Innovations’ of Taranaki, New Zealand. Well named, the craft unfolds like a Swiss Army Knife, only with more moving parts. Read more at Harryproa
Specifications
LW hull LOA = 11.0 m one of the bows folds back to facilitate…
The Camel: a sailing cargo proa
The Camel of the Sea is a sailing multihull cargo vessel designed for operation by a small crew of 3-6 in areas of steady winds and expensive petroleum. As outlined in The Case for the Cargo Proa, physics favors the proa configuration in the case of widely varying displacement. In this example, the fully laden boat weighs over three times the boat when empty. To recap the argument:
Widely variable displacement on multihulls is a…
