Throughout June we had the great pleasure to host Alson Kelen, director of Waan Aelon in Majel (WAM), in Germany. Thanks to Dorothea and Leonie of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin there was time and funding to explore the traditional Marshallese outrigger canoes that were brought to Germany in colonial times. These vessels are, to our knowledge, the only surviving examples of their kind from this time. There is even a complete sail from woven pandanus leaves, just incredible and definitely one of its kind.
Combining our respective expertise in traditional knowledge, pacific anthropology, conservation and engineering we learned lots of interesting new things from these artifacts. Connecting past to reality we also managed to spent a weekend in Kiel, catching a ride on Proasis as well as Ri Nei Jeim, a 6 m canoe built by Isocker Anwell (WAM) in Den Haag.
Last but not least we also had the chance to look into the future by conducting towing tests with scale models of the old canoes from the museums at the towing test facility of Hochschule Emden-Leer (HEL). The goal is first of all to get a better idea of how the old canoes might have sailed since nobody alive has ever tried. The knowledge (in particular regarding the asymmetric shape and keel outline) will also be applied to future designs in the ongoing collaboration with WAM to build more efficient sailing vessels for emission free lagoon transportation and fishing.
