Boat building

Fitting a plank -

From video the video,  FSM - Yap - Glimpses of Lamotrek Atoll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_LPeQMFeU0&t=195s

Historic proas

Some good historic photos here:

http://www.multihull.de/proa/history/p_history.htm

"Historische Proas - Ancient Outriggers"

Plenty of photos here.  I only picked these two because the sharpness of the hulls caught my eye.  Plenty of lateral resistance, eh?

Bayou Nick

Built this awhile back with the grandkids.  All out of scrap wood.  Just an experiment to see if a hull could be built out of 1 sheet of plywood.  It carried me (150 pounds) both paddling and even sailing but of course, as I expected, performance was abysmal!  (To be expected with a waterline length of maybe 7' and tubby proportions.)

But it sure was fun to be on the water again - even if only in a "toy" boat.

Bayou Nick - as named by my grandsons Justin and Joshua

Another view

Not practical, but fun

Sail shape!

Kiribati Parliament house

 Nice sail shape and canoe house motifs to the buildings!

The "New Tack" works...

Good results working with the "new tack" mock-up rig this weekend!  There's a new Page I've put up on it - A Working Crabclaw Sail:
http://starrigging.blogspot.com/p/a-working-cr.html

I'm happy enough now with this rig that I'd use it tomorrow if I could build a new boat!  That's all I can ask.  The ancients have already done it all for me!  All I ever needed was a way of short-handing the rig.  I'm ready to go sailing now!

Sharp hull...

The phrase "knife edge" comes to mind...

'nough said

From the digital collection at:
http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/kiste/Pages/viewtext.php?s=browse&tid=820&route=browseby.php&start=24&category=6&by=category&s=browse#

Kids learning to sail...

Just to echo an article posted yesterday at Sailing Anarchy - about kids and sailing...

Found here: http://sailinganarchy.com/2015/11/15/best-day-of-my-life/

An excerpt:  "Some call it “School Sailing.” Kids call it “the best day of my life!” Whatever you call it, it’s a fun-filled, action-packed, sailing extravaganza that gets every 5th grader out sailing on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, WI. Oh – and let’s not forget teaching science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through sailing, or using sailing to teach team-building and leadership skills to kids!"

The kids learn to sail, and things like using math and science while making their own sails.

That's cool.

Canoes of the Kiribati Islands

Check out this great piece on Kiribati canoe construction at Jane Resture's site:
http://www.janeresture.com/kiribati_canoe/history.htm

With the slightest of a breeze

And the greatest of ease

She skims over the shimmering blue

A most remarkable craft

From the fore to the aft

The incredible Kiribati canoe!

Like a frigate bird on a wing

The rigging and sails sing

A melodious song of the deep

About the spirits of the sea

And what has come to be

The incredible Kiribati canoe!

Poem by Dame Dr. Jane Resture

Sail specs

Here are a few fairly "orthographic" views of Carolinian sails.  I'll collect as many useful pics as I can in order to notate the typical tack angle of these and other "Oceanic lateen" or "Crab-claw" sails.

The average tack angles in the above sails are from about 60 to 63 degrees, depending on how you measure them.  These seem to be typical for most of the Carolinian sails I've seen.

Popo

Kaep, Popo, Wa Lap, and Waka

Ndrua

More on the "new tack"

In my previous post I outlined the "new tack", a simple one-piece-at-a-time approach to shunting the rig.  This has in its favor simplicity and few moving parts.  At least in a smaller sized vessel, I wouldn't mind moving the yard from one bow to the other by hand.  I can handle just a yard and sail as long as the mast isn't flopping around as well!  (As can happen shunting in a choppy sea state.)

However, one might want to control the movement of the sail also with a "tack track" or "tack line" of sorts.  Reference the sub topic Shunting Solutions in Michael Schacht's excellent article Proa Rig Options: Crab Claw
http://proafile.com/multihull-boats/article/proa-rig-options-crab-claw

In case any of you are not familiar with Michael's body of work, his site ProaFile, is the motherlode of proa and other such research on the web.  A link here and more kudos later:
http://proafile.com/multihull-boats/

Mbuli, by John Harris

Some construction drawings and photos for inspiration. The Voyager Star-Rig version would require a flatter deck.

The link to Mbuli at Chesapeake Light Craft:

http://www.clcboats.com/shop/boats/wooden-sailboat-kits/mbuli-pacific-proa-beach-cruiser-plans.html