An Update to our 32 foot Proa Design

In the last few weeks the 32 foot proa that we have been working on with proapist Russell Brown   (more on Russ)  has evolved to the point where we are ready to enter the detail design stage. Significant development has been made in the steering system as well as refinement of the beam/connective arrangements and cockpit layout.  It looks like the lightship weight of the craft will be under 800kg, even when built primarily from marine plywood!  This is possible due to the moderate surface area and low structural loading of a proa compared to other types of multihulls.

One of the interesting characteristics of the pacific proa as compared to most multihulls is that they excel upwind.  This can be seen in the attached VPP output for the boat:

Congratulations to Wild Oats XI on their 2012 Sydney Hobart triple crown win!

New course Record

Line Honours

1st on Corrected Time

Bieker Boats is proud to have done the structural engineering and detail design of the asymmetrical daggerboard and centerline light air daggerboard used for the race.  These survived the strenuous offshore conditions, including a high force impact to one of the daggerboards.  In addition, Bieker Boats conceived the concept and supervised the engineering study of fins mounted to the tail of Wild Oats' bulb to prevent keel flutter at the top end of the yachts speed range.