Small boat - big adventure
The satisfied smile belongs to proa sailor Chris Grill, who is currently having the time of his life cruising the Gulf Coast of Mexico:
I thought you and perhaps your readers might like to know that I am now sailing my boat - a 22-foot shunting proa
based on Gary Dierking’s T2 - along the Gulf Coast of Mexico… having the most wondrous adventure I could imagine. Rain, shine, storms, lagoons, rivers, beaches and bugs… I post reports…
Edmund Bruce was right
Back in the 70’s, Edmond Bruce was cobbling together wind tunnels and test tanks out of duct tape and bailing wire, conducting sailing experiments that were published in the Amateur Yacht Research Society newsletter. Think of him as the ‘Doc Brown’ of sailing and you won’t be too far off. The guy was a genius, one of those who could think “Fourth Dimensionally”.
His primary claim to fame is the invention of an inclined hydrofoil…
Exclusive: Epicure, 47’ Cruising Proa
I am pleased to present the proa Epicure. Epicure is one of the most interesting modern proas ever built, and certainly one of the best looking and most original. Belgian-French yacht designer Daniel Charles tells us more about his incredible yacht, which is now being seriously offered for sale. IMHO, this opportunity is like finding a Bugatti in the barn. In other words, a golden one.—Editor
Epicure is a cruising proa which started…
2011 Seattle Boat Show Report
The 2011 Seattle Boat Show has come and gone, without much of interest to report to Proafile readers, per usual. The sailing ghetto held its own and maybe even grew a bit over last year. Marine Servicecenter was displaying a Weta trimaran, my first look at the boat in the flesh. The Weta’s beams and mast are carbon fiber (mast is 6 lb.) making a pretty convincing argument for the judicious use of the black unobtanium. If the boat…
Before and after
I love me a good boat restoration story. I’m glad there are people out there who can take a forgotten boat from derelict to Best In Show with a little patience, love and elbow grease. Unfortunately, old multihulls are rarely restored, but in this case, a forgotten Gougeon Tornado at the Oklahoma City Boat Club was saved from the chain saw by Andy Davison:
I have just about finished restoring a Gougeon Tornado. I have always had and…
Born Again?
Robert W. from Boat Bits sent in some fascinating proa pics from the Virgin Islands. I don’t recognize the craft, though it follows the basic form factor of a Russell Brown proa, and also has some obvious Newick style cues. I’d heard that Russell left Jzero (his first proa) somewhere in the Caribbean, and it makes me wonder if Lazarus is in fact that same boat, though highly modified. Waddya think? Pics of both Lazarus and Jzero after…
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…
Testing the crab claw sail
Nicholas Schneider sent in some results of his crab claw rig experiments. Thanks Nic!
These are qualitative studies of slender foils and leading edge vortices for sailing craft. The results of these experiments, suffering from improvised input and variable conditions were good enough to inspire further work but produced more questions than answers.
Description of rigs in drawings:
Palindrome - the land proa
Chris Luomanen describes the world’s first and only proa on wheels!
The land proa was a mad last minute dash to the finish for 2 quarters worth of thesis work I did around "Joy Rides". The idea was to create unexpected experiences—things you had to try to understand. All of these were developed as working prototypes. The projects included:
Centipede Board: a skateboard with 11 fixed roller blade wheels on the bottom that you turned…
High performance outrigger part 2
Sam Frosh’s practical sailing experience leads him to believe that the tacking proa is not a realistic or sensible design when used in higher winds.
In September I had my contribution appear in Proafile regarding the design and construction of my tacking proa or more correctly, outrigger sailing craft. Since that article I have sailed my boat in the strongest wind conditions that I had taken it out thus far, around 18 to 20 knots.…
