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About Us
After several years of racing in small skiff classes in Australia, I decided that cruising seemed like a relaxing break from competitive racing. But how could I possibly go from a nippy little racing boat to a typical cruising slugger and still find it fun?
The answer was a Proa. At the time I had only read about them as an ancient Polynesian concept. The only knowledge I had of them was:
* They have a main hull and an outrigger.
* They don’t tack or gybe, they simply swap bow for stern by swinging the sail around to the other end of the boat, this maneuver is called “shunting”.
* Some Proas have an outrigger to windward, these are called “pacific proas” and others have the outrigger to leeward, these are called “atlantic proas”
Originally I thought of building my first proa to test out the concept of a pacific proa (outrigger to windward). It was never meant to be my actual boat, it was meant to be a model to learn from before making another one.
It was not until I'd finished the boat and painted it with some glossy polyurethane paint (the most expensive part of the boat) that I realised that I had an attractive proa probably capable of high speeds.
I then spent three days sailing and paddling down the Hawksbury river, out the heads and into Brisbane waters. This trip was about 120 kilometres. The offshore (semi-offshore) part of the trip involved sailing across broken bay in a 25 knot southerly and 2 metre waves. We then had to wait offshore because a strong out going tide would not permit us the enter the channel of Brisbane waters. As it was getting late and we had no safety equipment we decided we would have to attempt to beach the boat with the idea that the boat we be smashed to pieces in the surf. As we approached the breakers two waves broke on top of us but the third wave we surfed straight to shore, past several stunned surfers. The boat survived unscathed, our gear in the cabin didn't even get wet.
After this experience a became obsessed with proas, I spent alot of time building models to try produce the perfect the design. After a lot of thought about how to build a fast, safe, user-friendly, and quick to build proa, work commenced.
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