Inspired by the traditional boat building skills of the Marshall Island and the work ofthe NGO Waan Aelõñ in Majel (Canoes of the Marshall Islands) we will design, construct and sail a pacific proa, a very special and unique double hulled sailing boat. Proas.is or Proasis is a mix of the word Proa (the name of the pacific outrigger sailboat) and oasis. It will be our oasis when we cross the great water deserts of our planet.
The domain .is doesn’t sound familiar? It is the national domain of Ísland (Iceland). We chose this domain, because the server farms are powered mostly by geothermal energy (therefore carbon neutral) and for the side effect of the name combination.
Hello guys , first up congratulations on the launch of your wonderful little
Yellow Proa .
I have browsed your site and am very impressed by the quality of your build and attention to detail , well done .
Your project I am sure has inspired others to create their own adventuring vessels .
I consider myself between boats having sold my latest Cat just over twelve months ago and since rediscovered the expanding world of Proas .
I have confidence that these boats are worthy of further development and you guys are a great example of this .
I hope you can maintain your enthusiasm and financial situation where you progress further .
As an old time multiple boat builder and ocean sailor I reckon you guys are already planning your next project .
Modern methods of glassing wood (either ply or strips) is a proven robust method to create strong long lasting hulls .
However here is a caution I feel I must relay to you young blokes and helpers .
I see from the blog photos that you have taken some precautions in respect to avoiding contact with the resin , gloves etc .
Having been in the factory stage myself over many years I have followed safety proceedures but must admit to occasionally being slack at times especially with going about the work place without wearing protective breathing apparatus .
My concern for you guys is that you might not be fully aware of the physical hazards gaseous epoxy and hydrocarbon exposure has on your health ..
(A note here as a safe solvent use plain white vinegar , please never use Acetone without complete protection .)
Exposure to these wrong unnatural chemicals has an accumlative negative reaction to your bodies Immune system to the point of extreme debilitating symptoms .
I am telling you this from my own experience of over 40 years of boat building .
Since my breakdown and inabilty to follow my passion a few years ago I have been researching resin and laminating alternatives even some possible Bio type products .ie Flax or hemp .
I hope you will find the time to do the same .
Once again I encourage you to keep up the research and will look forward to more news.
I am always willing to share information on all things boating and ocean cruising .
Best regards Lance Reynolds a surfing sailor in Western Australia
Hi Lance,
thank you very much for your comment! Its great to get responses from all over the world.
Hand laminates and glassing is most likely a construction way of the past. The infusion technology Rob Denney developed is very interesting and looks promising (he also showed us the trick with the vinegar but we now use a special organic hand cleaner). Its worth to eliminate resin contact and grinding fiberglass wherever possible. While we’ve built proasis (in old fashion stile because we were also trying thinks out for the work in the Marshall islands) we always followed the safety rules of the German industry standard. So either the resins we can get here are less toxic or the standard is low but they don’t require masks.
Bio epoxies are very interesting and should be used everywhere in the future! There is a boat yard near by that is using only bio-epoxy and natural fibers to build yachts. The only reason we used conventional epoxy was that the bio stuff is more expensive (to expensive for us) and nobody was willing to sponsor us at that time. Maybe next time!