Homestead mailing list

[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

I really feel sorry for people, that for various reasons have never 
lived on a sailboat, gone island-hopping, lived with island tribes.  
There are advantages and disadvantages of course, in a cruising sailboat 
you have to have enough room to carry all your provisions, repair parts 
and materials, workshop with you, which slows you down, but tends to get 
you back home when things break down. The sea is unforgiving , bad 
planners and the unlucky suffer at its hands.

But it is a largely tax-free existence, without the tax-paid amenities 
we take for granted.  I used to take along a ten-speed Kawasaki 
motorcycle to get around on land, a lot of it roadless---found it to be 
a lot better than walking or paddling a canoe along the shore.

It may have changed, but when I lived in the Bahamas, there were no fees 
except at a marina for a transient boat, and you could import for 
permanent use anything that floated (including my floating hex 
houseboats pulled up in a land excavation) for the sum of $17.50---not 
bad for a then $28,000 fully-equipped house.

Unfortunately the bigger and more comfortable the boat, the less it is 
capable of detailed exploration of islands---for that you need a small 
Proa, and following are a large number of Proa links,  Sure, a seagoing 
kayak will do the job, but there is no charge for the wind driving a 
lazy-man's tiny sailboat either.



http://www.bijlard.demon.nl/
 (Dutch Proa)

http://www.bijlard.demon.nl/page40.html
 (tacking, Proa turns into wind, then reverses course, vs. trimaran and 
single-hulls which turn into wind, around and away on the other tack.)

http://www.wingo.com/proa/links.html
 (many outrigger boat designs)

http://www.schachtdesign.com/proafile/
 (more on Proa design, rigging---great for shallow waters, drag up on 
beach instead of anchor. I would prefer (strength permitting) ratcheting 
the structure supporting outriggers across the hull to provide greater 
leverage from the leeward side of the boat.)

http://www.proasail.com/
 (a Proa that looks nice---doesn't do what I would want)

http://www.friend.ly.net/~dadadata/proas.html
 (a lot of good proa information, history here)

http://www.boat-links.com/proapix.html
 (lot of good pictures, boat, rigging from 1870 circumnavigation of globe)

http://www.harryproa.com/shuntinganimated.htm
 (animated shunting/tacking path)

http://www.warrenmultihulls.com/w-21.htm
 (Warren lightweight, cartop portable proa)

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/garyd/walap.html
 (52-footer,with spring planks to allow outrigger to rise, fall with 
waves at different height than boat)

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/garyd/
(nunber different sizes, plans available)

http://www.dcss.org/ayrs/14B.html
 (dozens of New Zealand plans, photos)

http://kotisivu.mtv3.fi/terho.halme/cpc/Cruising_proa_concepts.htm
 (stability, righting moment, sail area charts)

http://www.flyingproa.com/
 (variable geometry experiment, good info, but website partially under 
reconstruction)

http://www.geocities.com/proaethos/
 (Atlantic-type proa with leeward outrigger as opposed to more common 
Pacific windward outrigger)

http://www.basiliscus.com/ProaSections/ProaIndex.html
 (hydrofoil, airfoil data, below-water, surface-piercing hydrofoils)

http://www.boat-links.com/boatlink.html
 (John's---huge number of nautical links)

http://www.boat-links.com/index.html
 (see the articles on cheap Tyvek sails and foil-sections vs. 
flat-plate sections)