The Race to Alaska - only 40 days until the June 4 starting gun! The new boats are finally getting splashed, the first hurdle of many to come.
The first and only proa to be entered in the race is Team Pure and Wild, launched this Saturday at CSR Marine in Seattle. Designed by America’s Cup foil master Paul Bieker, built by legendary proa builder Russell Brown, and raced by the team of Joe Bersch and Dalton Bergan (I-14 National…
Rudders and centerboards with hydrofoils, profiled arms, wing masts… after the 34th America’s cup, it would be easy to say “we are in the age of wings”. And now it’s not only on multihulls but also on monohulls!
However, wing masts and hydrofoils on sailboats are not a new invention. In 1913 Alexander Graham Bell and Casey Baldwin built Nancy, a hydrofoil sailing model. In 1938, Robert Rowe Gilruth, the “father of America’s human…
I’ve had an interest in hydrofoil sailboats ever since I ever heard about them, when I found ‘The 40-Knot Sailboat’ by Bernard Smith in the Kirkland Public Library as a teenager, which I must have checked out a dozen times. A few years later I was glancing through the Whole Earth Catalog at the neighbors and I saw an entry for ‘Flying Hydrofoils’, published by the AYRS in 1970, which I promptly ordered. So it has been with considerable…
The 41’ Invictus is a nice example of a ‘70’s era multihull that was moored at Shilshole Marina in Seattle for many years. It was actively campaigned in local races, with the sugar scoop transom extension being a later mod for more speed. Sadly, it appears that Invictus has run into some hard times and is now being offered for scrap.
Even though the boat is old and apparently decrepit, it has nice bones with a fine hull, high wing…
Multihull designer Bernd Kohler has thus far been solely devoted to catamarans, but his latest design is for a simple small trimaran, logically named LITTLE TRI. I like Bernd’s work because he places simplicity of build and economy high on the list of design priorities, and yet still manages to come up with appealing boats. His latest is a classic example, where he sidesteps the usual trimaran complexities by employing a readily…
Port Townsend’s Race to Alaska made it on the cover of the Rolling Stone Seattle Times this week. It features Seattle’s own Thomas Nielson and Scott Veirs, who will be entering a Hitia 17 with crab claw rig in the event. Both Tom and Scott are experienced watermen, they and their rugged little Wharram will make a formidable team.
However, they are just the tip of the local multihull iceberg forming around the race. Edensaw Woods is…
Though it doesn’t say in the ad, this 23’ folding catamaran is a Thomas Firth Jones designed Brine Shrimp. Built in 2000, the boat appears a bit rough but the nice thing about plywood boats is that there isn’t anything that a little time and basic wood shop skills can’t fix. The sale includes trailer, sails and 4 hp outboard (that needs a tune up). Find it here on Craigslist in Vallejo, CA for $6000.
From the designer:
Brine Shrimp…
Chetzemoka is the latest draft on an idea that has been slowly brewing for some time - a small multi-purpose cruiser/cargo/expedition vessel designed for the Salish Sea. It’s a motor sailor, because the wind rarely blows when you’d like it to in these parts, but you still want to be getting where you’re going. A 15-25 hp outboard will get the job done, with some wind assist via the rig.
Initial inspiration comes from the ubiquitous…
Just to prove that we aren’t complete small boat snobs over here at Proa File, here’s a yacht that’s well over our usual cut-off in length and opulence. This is the sort of thing that Nigel Irens Design has been up to lately, and we have to say it: the A-65 is probably the loveliest luxury sailing catamaran launched since the turn of the century.
The challenging brief from a client in the Emirates was to design a truly exceptional…
WindRider has announced that it is re-entering the sailing hydrofoil market with a new 17’ design that is aimed at overcoming some of the chief limitations of the type, such as being a pain in the ass to trailer, rig, beach and sail.
WindRider and their design partners developed the original concept of bringing foiling or “flying on the water” to the everyday sailor back in 1998, well…
