A Practical Proa
French designer Jérôme Delaunay has completed plans for a 9.9m (32’-6”) cruising proa named VAKA 990. It is a “pacific” type that includes four berths, a WC and some storage. The proa features a free-standing schooner rig of 37.25 m2 (400 sq. ft.) and central daggerboard in the main hull. Steering is via outboard mounted (Viking-style) rudders fore and aft. The central accommodations pod extends out to leeward to function as…
Proa Construction in Greece
Alex Calothis has submitted his progress on a proa build in Greece.
I grew up in Athens and learnt to sail on optimists when I was about 8, and I have loved sailing ever since.
My father built a 6m catamaran around that time, and it was very fast, but would not turn very easily - long narrow hulls with very little rocker. We often had to perform a three point turn to get her around!! Still, she was a lot of fun. Later he bought a…
Tarawa With Spinnaclaw
Gary Dierking is experimenting with the “spinnaclaw” - a crab claw rigging idea that I proposed way back in 2008. It’s pretty cool to see someone take an idea sketch and make it real - thanks Gary! Apparently, there is both good and bad news…
Read about it here on Outrigger Sailing Canoes.
Quill - a crab claw tacking proa
QUILL is an innovative tacking proa designed and built by Kim Fisher in England. The experimental vessel features a crab claw sail and a unique sliding outrigger arrangement. Kim writes:
Firstly, I would like to say a BIG thank you to Proafile for giving me mountains of useful information and encouragement to actually build this boat. I have been accessing your pages for over 3 years and this boat design is the result. (*blushing*…
Project Cheers: 2016 Edition
We’re pleased to announce that ‘Project Cheers’ - the story of the 1968 OSTAR racing proa - is again in print. A book in three parts, the story of CHEERS is narrated by the three principle players: Tom Follet the skipper, Dick Newick the designer, and Jim Morris, the race syndicate organizer and financier. A very good read, especially for budding R2AK syndicates.
This new edition is a labor of love of of Russell and Ashlyn Brown, of…
Mareinoa: a proa for cruising
A report on a new cruising proa build by Manfred Meier, designed by Othmar Karschulin of multihull.de. Thanks to Manfred and Othmar for the submission! —Editor
I became aware of the proa when reading a book about multihulls, named “Mehrrumpfboote” (multihulls) written by Klaus D. Kurtz. I expected that this book would deal with catamaran and trimarans only. But instead it started with a report of William Dampier, one of the earliest…
Le Prao Hot
Here is 6:20 of hot proa footage from our friends at Le Prao Pétrel. Pétrel is a stitch-and-glue plywood “sharpie” proa with aluminum beams and a crab claw rig. In other words, very basic and simple. However looks are deceiving because this boat has been under steady incremental improvement since 2008, and the recent videos are proof of the fruits of slow and steady perseverance.
The blog is an excellent document of the trials and…
Palindrome: skin-on-frame proa for the R2AK
A few days after the start of the R2AK I was biking around Point Hudson Marina to see what I might see, and decided to duck into a grassy field behind the RV lot when I ran into a proa! I skidded to a stop and pointed at the boat, “That’s a proa!” I cleverly exclaimed. The young man who was doing something on the boat stopped what he was doing, smiled and affirmed “Yes, it is!” That’s how I met Dillon Majoros, the owner, designer and…
Hocus Pocus trailerable proa
Rafael and Heidi Francke update us on their latest mega-trailerable multihull - this time a proa. Congratulations on a quick build and a successful first sail. -Editor
Here we go again. This time it is NOT a folding catamaran like Cat2Fold. There is a change in wind direction. It is a Pacific proa.
Last year we were playing with the idea of a “folding” (actually “demountable”) power catamaran. The playing got serious to the point of…
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…
