Proa Sailing: Best historic photo site ever (Marshall Islands)

January 11, 2012

Best historic photo site ever (Marshall Islands)

Marshallese korkor, photo probably pre-1905

Dirk H. R. Spennemann's excellent site Marshall Islands Historical Images:
http://marshall.csu.edu.au/Marshalls/html/histpix/histpix.html

Photograph of Jaluit Harbour, taken before the typhoon of 1905. Note the large number of canoes.

The above listed site is found on this page of Digital Micronesia:
http://marshall.csu.edu.au/Marshalls/Marshalls_History.html

The island of Airõk, Maoleolap Atoll, with Canoes.

About "Proa Sailing"

"The traditional Micronesian outrigger voyaging canoe is a marvel of technological design and evolution which can hardly be improved upon. This site explores concepts for adapting the native rig for single and short-handing. Development is ongoing..."

That's how this site began - to document my attempt to adapt or modify the traditional Micronesian proa sailing rig for the single or short-handed crew.

But now we're evolving...

To what? To be determined... Ode to Proa? All Things Proa? Who knows - let's just have fun with this...

The new byline is Sustainable Seafaring from Oceania. History, Design, and Relevance.

Hopefully I have given credit where credit is due. For all the photos, articles, and thoughts which I've borrowed - thank you to all the authors and photographers out there!

Note: All of the old Star-Rigging research and development postings can be accessed by clicking on the "Star-Rigging" label in the "Labels" cloud below.

The follow-up research, which has been quite rewarding, has its own Page named A Working Crabclaw Sail.

Why tinker with a good thing?

The Micronesian Proa rig is already an exceeding good thing. Why even mess with it? Because single-handing the rig during the shunt can become a daunting prospect as boat size, wind strength, and/or sea state increase.

My traditionally rigged 16 footer was blissfully simple - it didn't even have backstays - only a single shroud. But on a breezy day and on choppy water that rig had a mind of its own when shunting. Dropping down into a trough just as I approached the new bow with the sail was a trip. The whole rig had mass and momentum and went overboard a few times.

As a single-hander I sought a way to get the rig shunted in a controlled fashion - something I could rely on in a breeze and in a larger boat.

Resources (under construction)

Brower, Kenneth, A Song for Satawal, Andre Deutsch, 1983

Finney, Ben R., Hokule'a: The Way to Tahiti, Dodd, Mead, & Company, 1979

Gladwin, Thomas, East Is a Big Bird, Navigation & Logic on Puluwat Atoll, Harvard University Press, 1970

Haddon, A.C. & Hornell, James, Canoes of Oceania, Bishop Museum Press, Combined into one volume and reprinted 1975

Lewis, David, We, the Navigators, University of Hawaii Press, 1972

Schacht, Michael, Proa File, Since 1999: a comprehensive and invaluable website: http://proafile.com/multihull-boats/

Sperry, Armstrong, Call it Courage, The MacMillan Company, 1940

Thomas, Stephen D., The Last Navigator, Ballantine Books, 1987

Tribute to Mau

The great illustration above (I don't know the true title, I'm just calling it Tribute to Mau) is by Ahukini Romero Kupihea. See his page here: http://www.kupiheahawaiianart.com/about

From a his YouTube video:
"Traditional Hawaiian Artist Richard Kupihea Romero. Is a talented craftsmen skilled in Hawaiian Sculpture with wood and bronze, an artist that can draw in pen and ink. Oil painting and Hawaiian history, education helping and sharing his wisdom with others. Here his fascination with canoes shows. Kupihea appears courtesy of Hawaii News Now. Mahalo and Malama Pono. You can visit Kupihea on the web at. http://www.kupiheahawaiianart.com

Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQzED455eAE