The Life Pneumatic
I have a longstanding interest in pneumatic (pressurized) engineering structures. Blame it on Jacques Cousteau and his Zodiacs making a strong impression at an early age. For boats, inflatable hulls make all kinds of sense, being unusually light, strong, tough, and repairable. I even made a concept sketch of an inflatable hulled proa.
Here is Kurt Heiligenmann’s design for an inflatable beach cat - the Smartkat. Hate the name (I…
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…
Gary Dierking’s modular canoes
Gary Dierking is a small craft designer inspired by the native canoes of the Pacific islands. He started out with some elegant cedar strip versions of a Micronesian proa and a Hawaiian outrigger, but it is the “three board canoes” that I admire most. From Gary’s site:
In the late 1800’s, when sawn lumber began to appear in Hawaii and other Pacific islands, the local canoe builders immediately saw it as an easier way to build…
Micromegas 5
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
—Voltaire
Emmanuel and Maximilien Berque have unveiled their latest Micromegas: No. 5. Earlier incarnations of Micromegas have all been self designed and built, unballasted small craft for minimalist voyaging, and this one is no different.
M5 is current with the latest thinking on high speed multihulls: hulls are surfboard-like planing surfaces; The central pod…
Ninja Pro sailing outrigger
This sporty little multihull hails from Cape Town, the home of designer Gerhard Schein and G-Force dinghies. It’s called a “tacking proa”, though we purists would say “outrigger”. It has all the mod-cons like a square top main and a carbon fiber bow sprit for the screacher, and it looks like a great ride. Though the actual boat doesn’t have it, the 3D model on the G-Force site shows a Bruce foil in the ama.
Edmond Bruce was a…
Micro cruising with Cindy
Miss Cindy is a 16 foot micro cruising catamaran designed and built by Tony Bigras of Vancouver BC in 2008. Tony cruised the little yacht from Baja California, down the Mexican Pacific coast, Nicaragua, Panama, up the Caribbean Sea to Cuba, and finally to Florida - quite the shakedown voyage! I’m reading Tony’s well written and photo documented account of the trip, and am currently somewhere south of Acapulco.
Miss Cindy is on the…
Astus Trimarans
The Golden Mean on three hulls
Chantier Astusboats in France is producing a range of small trimarans that appear to successfully navigate the conflicting and dangerous shoals inherent in small boat design, especially multihulls. The boats are compact, simple, speedy, trailerable, comfortable, cruiseable, and even competitively priced! Thanks to Laurie McGowan for the heads up.
The Astus 20.1 was introduced in 2004 at the Salon de la…
