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A PROA is a Pacific sailing
canoe with a single outrigger. They are thousands of
years old, beautiful, and fast. A few of 'us' are so
taken with them that we're building modernized,
westernized versions. That's nothing new. Several proas
were built a hundred years ago by Commodore Ralph Munroe
and others. See:
American
Proas
Wondering how the Gilbertese engineer their akas and
platform? See this excellent short essay from
1945:
Gilbertese
Canoes
Keep reading to find out about my own proa
experiments. See my proa FAQ for much more about these
wonderful sailing canoes, including drawings, articles,
books and many links. I have to admit that I've done so
much reading and researching since early 1997 that I'm
hard pressed to keep the FAQ updated, but Version 2.0
will appear. I promise:
The Proa
FAQ
WHEN DISCUSSING proa parts, the
ama is the float, the crossarms are akas,
and the main hull is a vaka, waka,
wangka.
1998
I FINALLY decided on an
experimental proa design. More details are coming,
but in brief it's a Bolger-style sharpie hull 2 feet
wide and 17 feet long; conicidentally that's within a few
inches' beam of the classic 1890's sailing canoe. The
thought did occur to me that it might make a lousy proa,
in which case, with additional topsides of plywood, it
might indeed become a westernized sailing canoe.
The idea behind this first experiment is to take a
windsurfer sail and try that. (Though there are five mast
steps, total, a daggerboard trunk and a leeboard
bracket). The ama will support a seat of sorts, so in a
sense what you'll have is a sit-on-top windsurfer
arrangement. Though "crouch" is probably a better
description. Park your butt on the seat to windward of
the main hull and steer just as you'd normally steer a
windsurfer.
WE'LL see.
MY 1997 experiment consisted of
a "tacking proa": main hull was a 15-foot Coleman green
plastic canoe; ama is based on Phil Bolger's slab-sided,
flat-bottomed sharpie designs. In fact, I have a
Proa-Matic spreadsheet which will give you the
dimensions of the bottom and sides if you select a beam
(width).
The ama was lashed onto the boat in the Pacific
tradition. The Coleman is pretty much useless for
anything except conversion to a proa, if you ask me. It's
impossible to paddle, and I used it before as a
junk-rigged sailing boat.
Because it's experimental the ama is quite short,
about 7 feet 10 inches. It has bow and stern watertight
bulkheads and the center section is open for adding
weight or storing things if necessary; the open part will
be decked over with a couple hatches. It was made from
lauan plywood, construction scraps, System Three epoxy
and some fiberglass tape.
In the end the main complaint was simply that a
Coleman doesn't have enough places to fasten the extra
gear. Two of them might make a double canoe well enough
with a large platform of wood to bolt and screw things
to.
TED WARREN's 21-ft Tiny
Dancer is the design-and-materials opposite of
anything I've done or really plan to do (fully
engineered, computer-simulated, vacuum-bagged,
composite-built, fiber-sparred, dual carbs, the whole
enchilada) and a great looking little boat: Tiny
Dancer.
THE MAGAZINE Multihulls
has about a dozen pages on proas in the issue Nov-Dec
1997. Snag it fast, they don't do this often. Tiny
Dancer is there, Michael Schacht's and Peter Fynn's
proas are there, and more.
AMAS can also be made from
those split-rail-fence fence rails. They're about 10 feet
long and sharp on both ends, cost about $5 each. Four of
them are cut from a small log, so there's a round part
and two flat sides. Use either the round part down or the
point down and you have a round-bottom or V-bottom ama. I
hope to get a couple photos posted showing my
'experimental proa' with this rig. If you want more
weight to the ama, lash two together and lash those to
the akas. You can also use those round-sided yellow pine
garden "ties" which sell for even less, but they are not
as long.
HOW ABOUT a sail? Man, I need
to get around to this. I'm fooling with the Tahitian
"half-claw" and the more usual delta-shaped crabclaw.
These silhouettes of traditional Pacific rigs show the
major sail shapes.
...[more to come on The Proa
FAQ pages]
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A proa. Sorta.
Anudda
sorta proa: 1854.
Proas, Almost
from the 20th Century:
Ralph Munroe's Proa,
The Rudder, May 1898.
Text,
Plans, Photos
Another American Proa
Mr. Roosevelt's
Mary
& Lamb
(Rudder, Oct 1898)
Proa Parts:
- crabclaw sail:
- A triangular sail, cut very flat.
It resembles the "lateen" sail, but it's
not.
-
- steering
paddle:
- The traditional way to steer a
proa when running downwind.
-
- leeboard:
- A vertical board to provide
resistance (or actually lift) when sailing across the
wind. Not traditional, but practical
nowadays.
-
- lee platform:
- A perch on the opposite side from
the ama.
-
- mast, boom,
yard:
- The mast is in the center and free
to tilt fore and aft. The boom and yard are connected
and the yard fits into a socket at the
bow.
-
Visit the Marshall Islands:
http://www.rmiembassyus.org/
Crabclaw Sail Shapes
Crabclaw "lateen" sail
geometry:
Crabclaw sail:
Crabclaw sail:
"Half-claw" sail. This small canoe
tacks (bow is to the right). If it shunted the sail would
be taken down and reversed:
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