CAD software is a great tool to model complex 3-dimensional structures like boats. But as fast as a new model is created on the screen, so easy it is to loose the proper feeling for its shape and dimensions.
Real scale models help to get an impression how all the crazy things on the screen would look like in reality. We made a 1:25 3D-printed scale model of Proasis. Fortunately, 1:25 is more or less the scale factor of Playmobile, so we can use Playmobile manikins as size comparison.
Two different types of rigs will be tested: A softwing gaff sail with unstayed mast and a traditional oceanic lateen (also known as crab claw).
The design of our unique proa “Proasis” was born in a very special place: the Enewetok Atoll!
Never heard about that place? Well, honestly Bikini, Enewetoks neighbor atoll, is wider known (the swimsuit is actually named after it). Enewetok and Bikini, both located in the Marshall Islands, were used as nuclear test side by the US military in 1940’s and 1950’s.
Baker test, Bikini 1946
In total, 67 nuclear bombs were tested in Bikini, 44 more in Enewetok. The native population of those islands was ruthless relocated. Most of them left home forever.
The Runit dome. Nuclear debris was dumped in a crater and covered with concrete.On the edge of a tomb: nuke crater (filled with water) to the left and the waste dome in the background. Photo by Tohitika Sanchez.
Further information regarding the Marshallese nuclear legacy can be found here.
Enewetok is such a special place, it can only be reached by a 900 nm boat ride – once or twice a year – on irregular base. Unless you are lucky and catch the ride of your lifetime on a traditional polynesian catamaran replica!
On anchor in the Enewetok lagoon. Photo by H. Richter-Alten.
After a bumpy sail of 6 days crossing almost the entire Marshall islands, first sketches and 3D-models were born out of a mixture of salt, sun, wind and nuclear radiation:
