Proa Rig Options: The Sloop
The sloop is the rig of choice on 90% of all modern sailboats. Why not on proas as well? Here’s why.
Rigging a proa as a sloop is a true blending of East and West. The proa is considered the pinnacle of Pacific canoe design, and the sloop is often considered the finest invention of Western "yachting". Brilliant in their own context, what happens when we creatively recombine their DNA?
First consider the sloop. Beautiful, efficient,…
Proa Rig Options: Gibbons Rig
The story of this rig begins in Hawaii, with Euell - “Have you ever eaten a pine tree?” - Gibbons, a half century ago. Now, thanks to a renewed interest in proas and the easy flow of information on the Internet, the rig has received some new attention, and looks to become a very good proa rig indeed.
Writer and naturalist Euell Gibbons was living in Hawaii and dining on the jungle flora and fauna in the 1950’s. He soon realized that…
Poland Proa Raid 2014
A report on the 2014 Proa Raid in Poland
We are a group of friends sailing proas from Poland and Germany. Every year we meet to share our experience and to raid together to gain some more experience. Last year we were sailing on the Baltic Sea. We had the same idea this year, after the Proa Conference at Jamno Lake in Poland. But we had to change our plans. The channel between the lake and sea was closed, what we had discovered in the…
Proa Rig Options: Crab Claw
An overview of the potentials and problems of the remarkable rig of the native Pacific proa.
The Traditional Oceanic sprit rig (aka crab claw) has, in Western eyes, been considered a romantic if not particularly effective rig that most likely compared to the Mediterranean lateen in aerodynamic performance. That is, until famed sailboat aerodynamics researcher C. A. Marchaj published this startling graph in his research paper Planform…
Proa Rig Options: Overview
The proa has unique requirements for a sailboat rig, the main one being that it is reversible fore and aft. Since no Western craft have this ability, we who are developing the proa for use here in the West are truly in uncharted waters.
The obvious place to look for inspiration is with the traditional proa rig: the Oceanic sprit, developed over thousands of years of ocean voyaging by the Pacific Islanders. This rig, often called the…
The Proafile Primer
The illustrated glossary of bilaterally asymmetrical sailboats.
aerohydrofoil Sailboat concept pioneered by Bernard Smith in the 1960’s and described in his seminal work The 40-Knot Sailboat. Smith’s analysis of sailboat kinetics led him to a groundbreaking design involving no traditional sail or hull, instead utilizing solid airfoils and buoyant hydrofoils, arranged in a proa-like formation. Many of today’s proa advocates credit the…
CHEERS poster benefit
Russell Brown at Port Townsend Watercraft is now offering posters of CHEERS to benefit the Newick family. It is a painting by Bruce Alderson depicting the proa in action, racing singlehanded across the North Atlantic in 1968. This is my favorite image of the most famous modern proa in history. The posters belonged to the late Richard C. Newick, and are in limited supply. Find out more here.
A Cunning Plan
Paul Bieker has announced that study plans are now available for the 32’ Jester class proa - a collaboration between himself and Russell Brown. This design has already got the interest meter pegged in the forums and this will only turn it up to eleven.
The Proas of John Pizzey - Part 3
I started writing for Proafile because over the years I had seen several comments about this mysterious Mr. Pizzey! No mystery really, just a lack of information, so I thought I should rectify that and record my proa adventures. By the time I had finished putting pen to paper and thinking about what I was writing, my new design became clear as it had to meet the objectives I put down in writing. The design has been done conceptually…
The Proas of John Pizzey - Part 2
My introduction to modern proas, after designing, building and sailing my offshore catamarans, was aboard Tony Williams’ proa. It worked extremely well, was fast, fun and controllable but a bit complex in its rig. However it scored with no rudders or centreboard and was steered very effectively by the sail which was set on a spar with a central boom at the end of a gantry like mast. I grew fond of that sail arrangement and endeavoured…
