On Proas
Those who get WoodenBoat will have seen the take on a Bolger "cartoon
proa" by a fella in Florida name of Norwood. I've tried to get more
info from him without much success, but at least something akin to
Bolger's cartoon has been built. This includes the wacky triangular
sail, which no one has been able to have work -- I know personally of
three experimenters who could not control the sail.
On another Bolgeresque proa: John Harris and I took his 20-footer to
Tampa Bay for a cruising race, got off the beach in 20-knot winds
running south under bare poles. We averaged about 5-6 knots with a
few bursts of 8-9. The waves can best be described as "boisterous"
and around 6 feet.
Bare poles in John's case means 48 sq ft of wingmasts.
We had planned an outside transit down Fla's west coast, skirting the
beaches, but with 20 kts and up to 10 ft waves outside we decided to
go through the bays and sounds. Unfortunately we mistook a
navigational marker at the south end of Tampa Bay and ran upon a
sandbar, bending one rudder shaft. This mistake is understandable
given the rough ride and poor visibility, and in normal winds it
would have not damaged the rudder and would have been a moment or two
of shoving to get the boat over the shallows. It's designed to sail
on the Chesapeake in summertime, after all, where the water is
shallow and the winds are about 7mph average.
After putting the "good" rudder in place we set off again looking for
a place to land to assess the damage better and promptly ran onto
ANOTHER sandbar, bending the other rudder.
So we got the boat off that, and sailed to a nearby beach using
paddles to steer.
After another series of amusing mishaps including capsizing in 2
inches of water, we retired from the race and went on down the coast
in support of Kevin O'Neill who was sailing a CLC SailRig Mark II.
Kevin also suffered from the rough conditions though his boat (a
Chesapeake 17) and rig did not. He got salt-water blisters on his
hands and also dropped out.
So the short story is that the proa John designed works quite well
and was an exciting but not scary ride in conditions which were very
much outside its "design envelope". We're disappointed that the winds
were so nasty, but it is unusual in Florida for March and of course
you cannot pick the weather. If it looked as if the high winds were
one-day and expected to calm we would have waited, but as itturned
out the forecast was for 2-1/2 days of wind; reality shoed that winds
were still higher than normal for 3+ days.
And so it goes.
However if you look at the photos of John's proa "Mbuli" you will see
that the lower hull owes much to Bolger (flat, rockered, some flare)
and the upper hull owes much to the Birdwatcher cabin style.
proa" by a fella in Florida name of Norwood. I've tried to get more
info from him without much success, but at least something akin to
Bolger's cartoon has been built. This includes the wacky triangular
sail, which no one has been able to have work -- I know personally of
three experimenters who could not control the sail.
On another Bolgeresque proa: John Harris and I took his 20-footer to
Tampa Bay for a cruising race, got off the beach in 20-knot winds
running south under bare poles. We averaged about 5-6 knots with a
few bursts of 8-9. The waves can best be described as "boisterous"
and around 6 feet.
Bare poles in John's case means 48 sq ft of wingmasts.
We had planned an outside transit down Fla's west coast, skirting the
beaches, but with 20 kts and up to 10 ft waves outside we decided to
go through the bays and sounds. Unfortunately we mistook a
navigational marker at the south end of Tampa Bay and ran upon a
sandbar, bending one rudder shaft. This mistake is understandable
given the rough ride and poor visibility, and in normal winds it
would have not damaged the rudder and would have been a moment or two
of shoving to get the boat over the shallows. It's designed to sail
on the Chesapeake in summertime, after all, where the water is
shallow and the winds are about 7mph average.
After putting the "good" rudder in place we set off again looking for
a place to land to assess the damage better and promptly ran onto
ANOTHER sandbar, bending the other rudder.
So we got the boat off that, and sailed to a nearby beach using
paddles to steer.
After another series of amusing mishaps including capsizing in 2
inches of water, we retired from the race and went on down the coast
in support of Kevin O'Neill who was sailing a CLC SailRig Mark II.
Kevin also suffered from the rough conditions though his boat (a
Chesapeake 17) and rig did not. He got salt-water blisters on his
hands and also dropped out.
So the short story is that the proa John designed works quite well
and was an exciting but not scary ride in conditions which were very
much outside its "design envelope". We're disappointed that the winds
were so nasty, but it is unusual in Florida for March and of course
you cannot pick the weather. If it looked as if the high winds were
one-day and expected to calm we would have waited, but as itturned
out the forecast was for 2-1/2 days of wind; reality shoed that winds
were still higher than normal for 3+ days.
And so it goes.
However if you look at the photos of John's proa "Mbuli" you will see
that the lower hull owes much to Bolger (flat, rockered, some flare)
and the upper hull owes much to the Birdwatcher cabin style.