Saturday, July 2, 2016

The Proa Bug

I've got the proa bug pretty good now and looking to build something with a main hull of 32 ft...  outrigger in the 20 ft range... shunting pacific style proa with a little bit of western thrown in. I found this 31 foot Te Wa by Gary Dierking. I have his book but had not seen this design... it was on his main site where he sells plans for his other designs here... unfortunately no plans for this one... but he has construction photos and story here.  I built a model with guesstimated dimensions based on his construction photos. I'll be following up with some pics of that... and hopefully a full size model in the not too distant future. I recently emailed him and he provided me with some drawings with dimensions of the main hull. He is originally from the states but now resides in New Zealand and his designs heavily influenced by Polynesian proas indigenous to the South Pacific