Newsletter from Rob - 24th August 2003
Things have been heating up a bit at Harryproa. In the last month or so we have received deposits or promises from 6 people for various sized boats; almost as many as in the previous 12 months. A Map of Harryproa Around the World
Plan set #11- Harrigami
Nicolas Vivier: his business Icarai sells plans and materials.
Nicolas will be building his boat near his home in Argentan west of Paris,
as time and money permit.
www.icarai.net --> construire... et
naviguer !
Plan set #12 - Harrigami
... will be buit in the shed next door to ours. The builders will
be taking advantage of our bulk materials pricing and Mark's supervision
when required.
Plan set #13 - Custom design 18m leeward hull / 12m windward
hull (60'/40')
John Taylor, an engineer from the US Midwest, will be displaying his
boat in the Miami International Boat Show, February 2005. Mark will be
building it. This boat will be fitted with Solomon Technology electric
motors and will be started as soon as the current Visionarry (#10 construction
pictures) is launched and debugged - expected around Christmas.
Plan set #14 & #15 - Custom design 20m/13m (79'/43')
Terje Alvestad lives at 69 degrees N, in the frozen north of Norway.
Terje and his brother Seinar will be building a boat each then living
on them prior to going cruising in more temperate climes. They will be
built in vacuumed foam/glass using our cheap female mould process. They
will also be using Solomon drives.
Plan set #16 - Custom design 18m/12m (60'/40')
Col Campey is having his built in Perth, Western Australia, under
Rob's watchful eye and will then be sailing it home to Brisbane. Start
date early next year.
A Map of Harryproa Around the World
Elementarry
Jim has started the folding beams for Elementarry and is building a prototype
9m (30') to test them on.
A Radical 8.25m (27') 2 handed racing proa
... was to have been built for next year's Round Texel Race, which
is billed as "the biggest cat race in the world" and
had an entry of 600 boats last year. The boat is on hold at the moment
as we have been refused entry for unsecified "safety reasons".
The owner and Rob have appealed. Rob will be building a 7.6 m (25') Elementarry
to further test the folding beam concept and also check out a simpler
building system for the Texel boat. STOP PRESS - the appeal has
failed, we have been warned against "just turning up"
or racing unofficially. The race boat is now on hold. For a rendering
of the boat, and a discription Click here.
Rob finally got the rudders on his boat working properly and it is now in his garage having the final version installed properly. These rudders are now the rudders of choice for harry proas as they are safer, cheaper and more versatile than the in hull version, plans of which are still available. At the same time he will be painting it with gloss paint (shock, horror!) primarily to provide a base for his sponsors stickers. More about this when it is relaunched. Rob will describe the rudders and their pros and cons when he has some pictures. Geoff from Halsey Lidgard came for a sail to check out the jib, (which now sets well) and was suitably impressed with the speed, if not the list of things still to fix. Looking forward to taking him for a sail with a bit of breeze once everything is in race mode.
Just for a bit of variety, Rob was asked to draw a 12m/40' power proa for a client in Nicaragua. Had to sleep 6 surfers for 2 days and nights, plus a crew, and be able to travel at 15 knots under outboard. More details when they are finalized.
