The RECORD for the non-stop sailing from New York to San Francisco via Cape Horn is being attempted this November by Ryan Finn, on a proa! He chose this specific challenge because he wanted to incorporate American sponsors on a classic American clipper ship route. Ryan will be sailing JZERRO, a 36’ Pacific proa designed and built by Russell Brown, which has already sailed to New Zealand and back from the U.S. and is a proven blue water…
KANU-1 is a design commissioned by Paul Cheevers in Papua New Guinea. It is a solo paddle canoe intended for reef fishing off the beach. Paul writes:
My idea is to make a product that will give a boost to the local fisheries sector. At present most fishing is done from Yamaha-powered banana boats (pangas). That is fine if you can afford one, but most cannot. I am aiming more towards the women in the village who would paddle out at…
Gaia’s Dream, the 71’ Pacific cargo proa we have reported on before, is up for sale in New South Wales, Australia for AU $79,000 (about US $55,300). Or rather it was - it is now listed as sold! Apparently the proa myth that you get more boat for the money is actually true in this case. Originally, Yvette Ini Wijnen had designed the boat with a fore and aft canting mast that ran on a curved track, to allow the CE to shift forward during…
Full cut of the 2019 Majuro Day canoe race in Majuro Atoll, Republic of Marshall Islands. Race was held February 23, 2019 at Dalap Beach Park in Majuro. Canoe Neen Annan from Uliga bested a fleet of 16 racing craft. These boats are full-on proas, not tacking outriggers. They shunt rather than tack, and you can witness the awkward operation starting 0:58 at the first mark rounding. Besides that, there isn’t much in sailing that can…
As I am confined to quarters for the duration, pacing the perimeter of my isolation in endless circles, my imagination is drawn to devices of freedom and escape. Freedom of the seas is a perpetually compelling and romantic idea so here I present a Bug Out Boat for 2020.
The basic concept is millennia old: tie (or ‘catamaran’) a few logs together into a rudimentary raft, build a platform above with some shelter and a device to catch…
Franck Meidinger is building a proa in New Caledonia. La MANGUE BLEUE appears to be a large cruising Pacific proa, intending to employ a crab claw schooner rig! He says:
I’m currently building a proa in New Caledonia. The hull is completed by now and I’m longing for the (COVID 19) lockdown to stop in order to launch. I could work on the rig (eventually crab claw) if I had some materiel but shops are closed. Not even allowed to harvest…
Mini Cargo Ferry prototyping and development in the Marshall Islands, by Harry Proa. This is the first step on the road to getting the zero emissions 24m cargo ferry built and hauling passengers and freight.
The mini cargo ferry was designed in response to a need to replace the outboard powered fibreglass skiffs which are ubiquitous in the Pacific. These boats are expensive to run, difficult to maintain and have almost completely…
I was pleased to find this email from Ewaut Van Wassenhove in my inbox:
It was a while ago but through your website I came across plans for Madness by Chesepeake Light Craft and now I’m building a scaled up version of the plans in aluminum in Belgium.
I’m super stoked about the design and I’m making an effort to make weekly updates on YouTube about the whole build.
I recently made a YouTube explainer video or an effort to explain…
The folks at Pjoa.eu have a nice Christmas gift for us: plans for a plywood-epoxy stitch and glue version of their beach-cruiser sailing proa:
Let us proudly share that we have made available an extensive plans set for proa PJOA FOLK. By “extensive” – they contain e.g. step-by-step building and rigging instructions. Knowing where a lot of proanauts find significant problems, we want to save them a lot of time, so another part is soon…
Paul Cheevers has written in to share his new project: a 7m (23’) sailing outrigger design to be produced in fiberglass and used on the islands of Papua New Guinea by the locals as an alternative to the ubiquitous outboard-powered banana boats. The design is called VAN-2, from the free plans offered at the CFP (Coastal Fisheries Programme) website. Paul writes:
“After seeing hundreds of Yamaha 40hp banana boats (pangas) over the…
