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

Tahiti barrels by GoPro

Outta sight video - GoPro cameras are simply amazing!

(Note:  I can't figure out what's going with this video - one version is as shown in the pic below - a rear view and a forward view at the same time.  The other view has the interactive 360 degree capability.)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MKWWhf8RAV8

Filmed with a 6-camera GoPro Spherical array

Go here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKWWhf8RAV8&app=desktop

The text at YouTube:

"GoPro VR: Tahiti Surf with Anthony Walsh and Matahi Drollet

1438749 vues

Get fully barreled with Anthony Walsh and Matahi Drollet in Tahiti as they take you deep inside with a 6-camera GoPro Spherical array. For the full 360 degree experience view on your mobile device or on the Kolor app available at http://eyes.kolor.com/ Explore by using your mouse or the ASWD keys to move around! Shot 100% on the HERO4® camera from ‪http://GoPro.com. Get stoked and subscribe: http://goo.gl/HgVXpQ To license clips from this video go to https://licensing.gopro.com Music Matt Emery "In Your Arms" Link to buy: https://goo.gl/FWvJjo For more from GoPro, follow us: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gopro Twitter: https://twitter.com/gopro Instagram: https://instagram.com/gopro Tumblr: http://gopro.tumblr.com/ Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/gopro Vine: https://goo.gl/m3nQz7"

Embedded here:

The "New Tack" video

Some video, finally.  This is my first and only take and there's no narration.  Please pardon the amateurish quality.  It was my first video shot on a (borrowed) smart phone.

By the way, the sail can be shunted without brailing it up as shown but the foot would drop nearly into the water when the mast is centered.  The brailing does come in handy at times.

Here's the video and a poem-like mnemonic device for the shunting sequence:

Brail it up (the sail)

Center it up (the mast)

Move the sail across

Tilt it forward (the mast)

Drop it down (the boom)

Haul the sheet and go

So, I'm satisfied that I have found a good method of single-handing the traditional Micronesian proa rig.  Should I be blessed to be able to build again I'm confident that this will allow me to handle the rig in larger boats and in most sea states.

Following are some pictures and more in-depth commentary which I hope will help.  I've left the pictures huge - it may help to see the details.   BTW, as soon as I can get Blogger to cooperate, I'll post a higher resolution video.

Please bear in mind that this is a crudely and cheaply built mock-up made to test a rig idea - the fittings consist of what I had on hand.

(1)  Longshot, on starboard tack

(1)  In this longshot we see the basic rig.  With the continuous-loop backstay belayed note that the backstay is taut even though there is slack in the forestay.  No matter - the yard is bowsed-down to the the bow with a bungee cord and hook.  The yard stays in place even if the boat is pitching around in a choppy sea.

(2)  Another longshot, starboard tack

(2)  Another longshot.

(3)  Medium shot, starboard tack

(3)  Medium shot.  I used little cuphooks to belay the backstay.  The real boat would have cleats or linestoppers.

(4)  Bungee cord and socket at bow on starboard tack

(4)  Closeup of the bungee cord with hook and the heel of the yard in a socket at the bow.

(5)  Backstay belayed

(5)  The backstay belayed with the sail deployed.

(6)  When the mast is centered

(6)  Closeup of the belayed backstay when the mast is centered mid-shunt.

(7)  Halyard bridle view 

(8)  Another halyard bridle view

(7) and (8)  Two views of how the halyard bridle works while shunting the sail.  The bridle allows the yard to move upward while passing amidships thus keeping the heel and foot of the sail out of the water.

(9)  Halyard bridle view on the other tack

(9)  Here is the halyard bridle view with the sail on the port tack.

(10)  

(11)

(10) and (11)  A couple of final shots on port tack.  In shot (11) the heel of the yard has gotten out of its socket at the bow but the real boat would use a stronger bungee cord and hook to keep it bowsed down snugly.  The "keeper" sketched below worked pretty well on my first boat.

Here's an earlier post from December 13th of 2015 with some background data - 

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!

Baltic Proa Conference 2015

Kudos to Janusz and friends!
 

Nice video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5blQRCrwaZo

And assorted pics below -

 
Janusz has been at this a long time...   Congratulations!

GoPro and Endless Barrels...

Again, this may be a bit off topic.  But check out these endless barrels - that's sustainability! 

GoPro: Kilometer Barrels With Benji Brand - GoPro of the World June Winner
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2eE08eZUTw

"Published on Jul 26, 2014

Benji Brand scores endless barrels at Namibia's fabled Skeleton Bay and takes home $1000, a GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition, and a year subscription to Surfline"

And here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm7eT0MGt2Y

is GoPro: Endless Barrels - GoPro of the Winter 2013-14 powered by Surfline

Aren't GoPro cameras simply amazing!

Evolution of Pacific Culture

Published on May 18, 2012

Video 06 of the Introduction to Ethnobotany series. Presented by Will McClatchey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uF99ww72Og

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.

Slightly off topic - but sustainable!

Not proas, but surfboards...  It fits one of my Labels - "pacific life".  And most importantly, it is wisdom of a kind.  After all, it was Don Redondo who said:

"Ya wanna know 'bout surfin', you surf.  Ya' don't surf, ya don't know nothin' 'bout surfin'."

Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VutqWDqEJmg&app=desktop

The Surfer's Way of Knowledge...

"Atoll Memory"

A video of Ant Atoll, near Pohnpei.  Uploaded to YouTube in 2008 by Lon Warneke. 

Our blue canoe

Here:
http://pacificvoyagers.org/

move-your-paddle-silently-through-the-water

Our blue canoe trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR_nk7ZEKcE

Our blue canoe trailer 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKbIeBfF4eo

Pacific voyagers:
http://www.pacificvoyagers.com/about-project/movie/
 

A Carolinian proa on a Saipan beach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UPAY1Zc4PGM

Stills from the above:

Papa Mau, The Wayfinder

Papa Mau, The Wayfinder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rCuSyvsCcg&feature=related

An actual website devoted to the film:
http://papamau.com/

Our Blue Canoe

Our Blue Canoe - the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UR_nk7ZEKcE

Our Blue Canoe - trailer 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKbIeBfF4eo

Article at Proafile:
http://proafile.com/magazine/article/our-blue-canoe

Pacific Voyagers.org:
http://pacificvoyagers.org/

Premier of a Mau Piailug page

A new page has been set up specifically for Mau here:
http://wavetying.blogspot.com/p/mau-piailug.html

Hawaiian Watershots

The catamaran Illusion dropping in on a monster wave at the channel to Ala Wai Boat Harbor

Among many great pics at Hawaiian Watershots:
http://hawaiianwatershots.com/

The Navigators - Pathfinders of the Pacific

Over 1,000 years ago, the islands of Polynesia were explored and settled by navigators who used only the waves, the stars, and the flights of birds for guidance. In hand-built, double-hulled canoes sixty feet long, the ancestors of today's Polynesians sailed across a vast ocean area, larger than Europe and North America combined.
To explore this ancient navigational heritage, anthropologist/filmmaker Sanford Low visited the tiny coral atoll of Satawal in Micronesia's remote Caroline Islands. The Navigators reveals the subtleties of this sea science, transmitted in part through a ceremony known as "unfolding the mat," in which 32 lumps of coral are arranged in a circle to represent the points of the "star compass." To master the lore of navigation was to attain great status in traditional Micronesian society.
- A film by Sanford Low, distributed by Documentary Educational Resources

Micronesia sailing

Outrigger sailing in Marshalls Outer Islands