Marine Technologies Yacht Design

Update Oct 2008

Detailed plans for home builders are now available from us for 500 euros. They include a sail plan with the Gibbons /dierking and the crab claw sail, a deck plan, a general arrangement plan, a hull form plan, and a plywood parts cutting plan. Plans at 1:1 scale for cutting plywood parts are available on request. Also included is a bill of materials and weight estimate.

To order, simply contact us.

Here are a few sketches of this project. It is a six metre proa weighing 140 kilos (300 lbs) dry, built in stitch and glue plywood-epoxy. The beams are simple aluminium tubes and the other spars are used windsurf masts. The main hull has enough space for two bunks 2 metres long and 50 cm wide, which allows two adults to go on small cruises in protected waters in minimal comfort. A tent on the trampoline advantageously supplements this while at anchor .

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On this drawing, Salamba is sailing towards the left of the image. The general arrangement of the proa can be clearly seen. To change tack, the sail and rudders are inverted, and the boat goes in the other direction. This manoeuvre is known as "shunting" and to perform it, the boat needs to do a very strange thing for a sailor : it has to stop. On a tacking boat, this entails a complete loss of control, but not so on a proa. The boat will just lie beam on to the wind, ready to sail in either direction. One more advantage over the tacking boat, which, when stopped, has to gain speed in the direction it is facing, so if it happens to be towards rocks, it can be a bit of a problem...

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The rig is a modified Gibbons/Dierking rig. It consists of a fully battened sail, a front spar made with two windsurf masts joined at the wide end, a boom and a mast, windsurf masts as well, in order to keep costs down while making use of the advanced technology available in this domain. Salamba’s prototype sail will have five battens: one at the boom level and two on each side. As this sail does not need to reverse its curvature, a semi-rigid construction can be researched, in order to obtain the most efficient and powerful sail without weighing or costing too much. A slightly modified landyacht sail could do nicely.

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Close up, the rudders are easily visible. They turn 180 deg during the shunt. The forward one is locked and used as a daggerboard, while the aft one is used to steer. The arrangement is as follows: a fixed upper part where the stock bearings are located, and a rotating lower part, which constitutes a properly profiled, balanced rudder.. The whole assembly (tiller, upper part, lower part) can be lifted in a case, while facing either forward or aft. This is important to be able to land on a beach. Please send me any comments or questions you might have using our Contact Form.

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A preliminary General Arrangement drawing is available as an Acrobat PDF file.

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A preliminary Sail Plan is now available as an Acrobat PDF file.

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In the Press

Here is a summary of the most recent articles about Salamba.

Magazines

Loisirs Nautiques, January 2004.

Innovation: A daysailing proa. The journalist qualifies Salamba as a "...Seducing daysailing boat." Then adds: "...the Salamba deserves more than a simple look."

The lightship displacement will be around 130 kilos thanks to "...a high quality plywood epoxy construction."

And finishes by: "Can’t wait for the first trials!"

Web Sites

Multihull Boatbuilder

Salamba - A proa project to inspire...

Since the 25th of November, MultihullBoatbuilder.com has a link from their home page to Salamba’s. We appreciate their interest in the project.

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If you wish to know more about proas, the best article I could find on the web is the one of Col Clifford. Also highly recommended is The Proafile.

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