Russell Brown Interview
John C. Harris of CLC Boats has coaxed the Jedi Master of proas off the mountain for a chat. Fascinating stuff.
Photo: Russell Brown’s Jzerro on the cover of Cruising World, shot in Tahiti on his trans-Pacific cruise in 2000. Steve Callahan was crew and authored the story.
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…
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
Apacolypso
Apacolypso is a Pacific Islander inspired outrigger sailing canoe, made from aluminum pontoon boat parts, bamboo and various other locally obtainable items in their native American south, all lashed together with spit and vinegar. Her two crew are about to embark on a voyage of discovery, circumnavigating Florida via the “Saltwater Paddling Trail”, from Pensacola to Fort Clinch State Park, a distance of 1,515 miles.
However,…
Another Mystery
Considering how well you all did with identifying Jzero/Lazarus, here’s another challenge. This amazing vessel has recently appeared on Le Prao Petrel, with no more information than it is from the West of France. The photos show a Pacific proa with a stayed, balestron rig, leeward anti-capsize pod and small doghouse. How does this happen?!! My spies are everywhere, and this one slipped by everyone.
UPDATE 12.9.10: Helmut M. has sent…
A proa for Ariadne
Maestro proa designer John Dalziel has an interesting new project - an 8m proa “workhorse” for the Greek Isles.
On the Greek island of Naxos, fabled home of Dionysus and Ariadne, Helmut Mueller is building an 8 meter proa. Unusually for its size, it is actually a half-displacement model of a 10 meter proa Helmut intends to build. However, we decided it was best to build the 8 meter model first and test it thoroughly. Besides being a…
Tahiti Douche
Vintage racing proa in the Caribbean!
A 58’ vintage Atlantic racing proa has become available in the Lesser Antilles. ‘Tahiti Douche’ (also campaigned as ‘Lessives Saint Marc’) was launched in June 1980, to compete in short-handed races across the Atlantic such as the TwoSTAR. One of the few racing proas to survive the carnage of that period, he’s been sailing ever since in the idyllic trade winds of St. Martin.
‘Tahiti Douche’ was…
Sail Rocketry
“To one who has turned lifeless materials into a thing alive and forced it to do his bidding against the resisting forces of nature in silence, without fuel and without defiling air or water, there can never be anything more wonderful than the sailboat. “The sailboat never offends the senses of fish, fowl or man. To make it move faster is to make it more a thing of freedom and beauty.”
—Bernard Smith, “The 40-Knot Sailboat,” 1963
When…
Rozinante the Mono Proa
A considerable amount of credit/blame for my love of small boats goes to L. Francis Herreshoff and his book ‘The Compleat Cruiser’. I fell in love with his ideas about a simple yet refined cruising lifestyle, epitomized by Mr. Weldon and his whaleboat type ketch - Rozinante. Rozinante is beautiful, fast, seaworthy and handy, and I was musing recently about how a proa version of Rozinante might work out.
Rozinante Il is a mono-proa - a…
