Proa Sea trials

[Keith 66]

Over the last 2 1/2 years my son with a bit of help from me! has been building a Proa, Its a close recreation of a traditional Marshall islands outrigger canoe mostly built from recycled materials, the hull was cut & shut from the broken up remains of a 45ft Kelsall cat that had lain abandoned for many years at Benfleet.
First sea trials took place a few weeks ago in a light f 2, Yesterday we took the Proa out to the Ray for a second go.
Wind easterly about F 2-3 . He (proas are traditionally male) sailed remarkably well. Few teething problems to sort like the mast is far too thin & bendy but heh ho!
Spent an hour reaching back & forth from Leigh out to the ray before running back to Benfleet.
Utterly impractical as a sailing boat but the most fun you can have with your clothes on!

 

[xyachtdave]

There must be much satisfaction knowing you’ve built that yourselves, well done.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Fantastic !
Well done to all.

 

[Gargleblaster]

Have you thought about traditional sails? The above ia a Melanesian Laketoi rather than a Polynesian Proa but very similar. I was fortuante enough to sail on a Laketoi near Kerema in Papua New Guinea many years ago.

 

[Keith 66]

Not really, the sail we have is a slightly modified genoa of a Westerly konsort that was binned, It is fairly close in shape to the Marshall islands proa's but probably too baggy to be of much more use.
Each island chain had its own type of canoe with wildly varying sail shapes. Recent research has found that the highly exagerated hollow in the leech actually has a self feathering effect on the sail in wind gusts as the spars flex, useful as the sails do not reef in a conventional sense.
In recent years canoe racing across much of the pacific islands has become wildly popular. Also strangely in Poland, Proas have recently become very popular where Janus Ostrowski has built many as a commecial undertaking, camping raids along the Baltic coast & racing take part & a good time is had by all. These proas are car toppable or trailable & range from 16ft to 20ft in length.
We were governed by the size of the donor hulls that were available so Slight return has come out at 32ft 6" rather larger.

 

[penfold]

Go the other way and modernise, like the Harryproa.

 

[Keith 66]

We decided on a traditional one as it fitted the materials & donor bits we had available. I have read a lot about the harry proa & there are some big arguments online between the designer & many others. Just not our cup of tea really.
Biggest problem with these boats is what happens when, not if you capsize, 90 degrees is recoverable, An inversion is something else. There is a succesful well sorted proa sailed by Fjiordproa on you tube, it has a lot of innovative ideas & he has made the boat truly practical & safe to sail.

 

[mrming]

There’s also a US sailor called Ryan Finn who recently sailed a more modern proa around Cape Horn - article here.