A modern take on the traditional proa

Ali Wood finds out more about visionary designer Rob Denney

- Ali Wood

New Zealand boat designer Rob Denney is a proa enthusiast. He built his first catamaran aged 14 and, after skipping his accountancy exams to do the Sydney-Hobart race, never looked back. He's spent his career racing, delivering and designing yachts, among them a catamaran he capsized in a 'gung-ho' two-handed round-Britain attempt (the boat, considered a shipping hazard, was destroyed by the Irish Navy) and a 30ft Iroquois catamaran propelled by a three-bladed windmill.

"That taught me a lot about engineering," says Rob. "We sailed at 6 knots into 20 knots of wind, which I considered a success. It was fun!"

Rob returned to Australia and launched a business selling cedar-strip kit boats, before building his first proa in 1995 using stitch and glue ply, an alloy mast and a 'bewildering variety' of steering combinations. At 16ft (5m), his proa was competitive with Lasers and slow beach cats, and taught him a lot about sailing proas. He continued to experiment with different ideas, changing rigs, beam arrangements, steering and hull size. "Proas range in size from small boats ballasted by baby coconuts to ocean crossing vessels capable of carrying a dozen people and supplies for many weeks," he says. "They were probably the first improvement made to a floating log by early sailors. A second, smaller log was lashed to a cross beam to stop the main log capsizing. Rigs were added later when technology allowed."

Racing proas

The first racing proa to gain celebrity was 40ft (12m) Cheers, which came third in the 1968 Singlehanded Transatlantic Race (OSTAR). The rig, rudders and accommodation were all in the windward hull but she was notoriously difficult to shunt. Her success triggered a spate of French-built single-handed proas, but after numerous capsizes and non-finishes they were banned from short-handed races in Europe.