Proasis was featured in a documentary about special boats by German public broadcaster NDR recently. You can watch it in full length on Youtube:
Author: Henrik Richter-Alten
Proasis on TV
Proasis is going to be on TV! German public broadcaster NDR will air a documentation featuring our climate change work with the Proasis Project. You can watch it on the 18th of March at primetime and as repetition on the 24th March at 15:00.
For more information visit the website of the broadcaster: https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/die_nordstory/Traumboote-Bootstraeume,sendung1232416.html
The documentation is part of a series called “Nordstory”. A stream will be available on demand at the ARD Mediathek:
https://www.ardmediathek.de/sendung/die-nordstory/Y3JpZDovL25kci5kZS8xNDk1
Fire at WAM
Despite the War in Europe we have more sad news unfortunately. Waan Aelon in Majel, the organization in the Marshall Islands we support, burned down last night. Fortunately, nobody was harmed but both workshops, the canoe house, most of the tools, the entire office, old artifacts and multiple canoes were destroyed.
This is a heavy loss for the Marshall Islands and the hole world. In the past 30 years WAM has not only trained hundreds of young people in traditional arts and life-skills, WAM also documented canoe sailing and is a key institution for the transitioning to low carbon shipping by combining indigenous knowledge and modern science. We had just rebuilt and renovated large parts of the WAM campus to host more workshops for canoe building.
The WAM family is like a second home to us. It is impossible to bring back the things that were lost to the flames but we do not leave or WAM family behind! Please help us to finance the most crucial reconstruction! If every one gives a few bucks we can rebuilt WAM together. You can donate on gofundme:
New Sail under construction
We’ve started to make a new sail for Proasis. This time with a better cloth and improfed shape. We will also try an innovative system to reef the sail (reduce sail area in strong wind).
How to anchor all year long
As you might know we keep proasis anchored all the time. This year we didn’t even winterized her. That means we also have to face serious gale-force storms once in awhile. Such a storm with gusts up to 62 kn will hit us tonight.
This is how we prepare for such a forecast but also some general things to keep in mind when dropping the anchor:
- Have a look at the forecast all the time! Its easier to be prepared if you know whats coming.
- Pick the right spot. The right location is crucial for staying safe at anchor. Look for protection from wind and swell. Its also important to to find a shallow place with good anchor ground such as sand or mud.
- Use the right anchor gear for your boat and spot. We use a 12 kg plough anchor with 10 m chain, a 20 kg chain weight and 5 m rope (bridle to each bow).
- Chain-weights are very effective to keep the chain down and keep the anchor fast. They also reduce the swinging motion often associated to multihulls.
- Reduce windage: with strong wind on the forecast we put the mast down (30 sec work).
Frozen
Winter really kicked in, our canoe is locked in ice!
Winter Workshop
While proasis is still in the water (we will keep her wet for this winter) we moved back to the workshop to work on some improvements:
- Reinforcement of the spars
- New, larger leeboard
- Implementation of the kickup rudder mechanism
- New Sail
The new sail will be made next year but all other bullits are tackeled now:
Winter Sailing
The north German winter is usually cold and dark but it can be nice sometimes too. These are some photos of a recent tour along the Kiel fjord.
COP26 Climate Conference
We are proud and honored to get the opportunity to advocate for climate action as part of the delegation of the Marshall Islands at COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. We had two very nice events where we presented the achievements of Waan Aelõñ in Majel (Canoes of the Marshall Islands) in gaining climate change resilience by reviving the traditional outrigger canoe designs as part of the GIZ implemented Low Carbon Sea Transport Project (LCST).
A recorded video of our session is here available on demand (requires free registration).
News from the Marshall Islands
The Marshall Island Journal (local newspaper of the Marshall Islands) has published a nice article about the successful collaboration between Waan Aelon in Majel (WAM) and the GIZ implemented Low Carbon Sea Transport Project, which we were supporting with various assignments. WAM has just launched a slightly smaller version of our Proasis with sustainable fishing in mind. Both designs are heavily influenced by Rob Denney. Kommol tata for the great work!
