Proa trip

I won’t go into the details of Proa’s (outrigger canoe’s) other than they are very unusual craft that helped populate the pacific islands, ingenious in design, simplicity and seaworthiness. There are a number of great web sights out there www.pacificproa.net gives links to a lot of them. I have been interested in proa’s for the last few years so it has been a great experience to build one and sail it. The design we used was based on the Marshell Island voyaging proa’s still made the traditional way today, but we have used modern materials and a modified rig, the traditional one seemed to hard for two people to handle. We have redesigned the mast arrangement and have a tripod system with the sail pivoting around inside.

The one unusual aspect I will mention is the fact that they have no front and back, so to change direction you shunt rather than tack. This involves bearing away to a broad reach then swinging the sail right around, at the same time lifting the steering oar and moving to what was the front or bow, then lowering that oar making the old front the back. This seems rather confusing but the advantage is the outrigger always stays up wind as ballast.

Matt and I built ours the summer 06 07 on a bush block out on Bruny Island, just off the coast from Hobart in Tasmania. She took us longer to build and we didn't end up getting away until early April and had some problems so have put the trip off until we are confident in the trip being successful. The idea is to sail her up to Eden and all going well from there around the top of New Zealand down into Auckland, a voyage of around 1200 nautical miles. Upokorua is 30ft long with two bunks and room to cook and navigate down below. The name Upokorua is Maori for two heads a reference to her double ended design.