Proa

These are widely used in the native ships of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and continue to be used today as traditional fishing, cargo, and transport vessels.

The modern proa exists in a wide variety of forms, from the traditional archetype still common in areas described, to high-technology interpretations specifically designed for breaking speed-sailing records.

It probably entered the English language via Dutch prauw and Portuguese parau, similar to Spanish proa, meaning "bow".

Its cognates in other Austronesian languages include Javanese prau, Sundanese parahu, Kadazan padau, Maranao padaw, Cebuano paráw, Ngadha barau, Kiribati baurua, Samoan folau, Hawaiian halau, and Māori wharau.

[3][4][5] Catamarans and outrigger boats were very early innovations of the Austronesian peoples and were the first true ocean-going ships capable of crossing vast distances of water.

This enabled the Austronesian peoples to rapidly spread from Taiwan and colonize the islands of both the Pacific and Indian oceans since at least 2200 BC.

[3][6][1] Catamaran and outrigger technologies were introduced by Austronesian traders from Southeast Asia to the Dravidian-speaking peoples of Sri Lanka and Southern India as early as 1000 to 600 BC.

This is still evident in the terms for "boat" in Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada (paṭavu, paḍava, and paḍahu, respectively), which are all cognates of Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian *padaw.

Either lost during the colonial period or supplanted in modern times by western boat designs or fitted with motor engines.

[5][8] The Portuguese were the first Europeans to encounter the double-outrigger Southeast Asian ships, initially with derivative vessels from the Malabar Coast, which they called the parau.

Although technically restricted to outrigger sailing vessels, European sources often applied the term indiscriminately to any native ships of Southeast Asia.

[2][5] The earliest written accounts of the single-outrigger Pacific proa (though not by name) were by the Venetian scholar Antonio Pigafetta, who was part of Ferdinand Magellan's 1519–1522 circumnavigation.

They encountered the native sakman ships of the Chamorro people in the Islas de los Ladrones (Mariana Islands).

[12] In the subsequent voyages of James Cook in Polynesia, he referred to the similar native single-outrigger canoes there as "proes", differentiating them from the double-hulled catamarans which he called "pahee" (Tahitian pahi).

The first well-documented Western version of the proa was built in 1898 by Commodore Ralph Middleton Munroe of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club.

A small model of the Anson-Brett proa is collected at the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Rhode Island; its maker is uncertain.

It carried three times the ratio of sail area to immersed midships section than the fastest yachts in the club and yet drew only 15 inches (38 cm).

[2] Since Munroe had no direct experience with proas, all he had to work with was the widely distributed and incorrect plan drawing from about 1742, made during Admiral Lord Anson's circumnavigation of the globe.

Brett, the draughtsman of the plan, is thought by some to have misinterpreted one key element, showing the mast fixed vertically in the center of the boat.

It is not clear that traditional proas of the Pacific islanders could plane, though the long, slender hull would have a much higher speed/length ratio than other contemporary designs.

Munroe was building a "cheap and dirty" sharpie hull made of two 32-foot (9.8 m) planks, a couple of bulkheads and a crossplanked bottom.

Roosevelt's short article is accompanied by photographs showing his proa Mary & Lamb, at rest and under sail.

Crew can also be moved onto the lee pod to provide additional heeling force in light winds, allowing the ama to lift under circumstances when it would not otherwise.

While Brown's proa was designed to be a cruising yacht, not a speed-sailing boat, the newer 36-foot (11 m) Jzerro is capable of speeds of up to 21 knots (39 km/h).

Jzero, for example, and all of Russell Brown's other designs, use a sloop rig and hoist a jib on whichever end is the current "bow".

The use of underwater foils to provide lift or downforce has been a popular idea recently in cutting-edge yacht building, and the proa is not immune to this influence.

Because the Atlantic ama is at least as long as the main hull, to reduce wave drag, this style can also be thought of as an asymmetric catamaran that shunts rather than tacking.

This and other similar proas place the bulk of the passenger accommodations on the ama, in an attempt to make the vaka as streamlined as possible, and put much of the mass in the lee side to provide a greater righting moment.

[19] On March 27, 2009, Richard Jenkins set a world wind-powered speed record, on land, of 126.1 miles per hour (202.9 km/h) in the Ecotricity Greenbird.

Greenbird is based on a one-way proa design, with a long, thin two-wheeled body with a third wheel to the lee acting as an ama.