Shunting a proa, Balkan style...

A cruising Proa is born, Balkan style from Balkan Shipyards...
After a 200 mile cruise in the Black sea, sailing in all or nothing, this Junk Rig proved to be safe and affective. light winds, we move along, in a blow we reef in seconds and fly away....

12 years of Proa design and 4 boat builds lead to this... I'm very pleased, shunts easily, fast enough and we can go anywhere we choose.

Shunting Vid below
Keep Shunting,
Balkan Shipyards

 

Innovative, but not what I would call fast. Imagine a dark night, rough water with busy commercial traffic.
Definitely an enthusiasts design.

 

Respect to those following a passion.

 

Kudos, I'm working on my sixth proa now. Would be interested in your auxiliary power setup.

 

I didn't call it fast ether.
Only a fool would take a shunter into the conditions you describe!!!

Keep Shunting,
Balkan Shipyards

 

Respect to those who share respect!!!
Keep shunting my friend,
May the Force be always by your side.

Balkan Shipyards

 

3.5 HP 2 stroke Tohatsu drives her fast in waves and into a head wind no problem!
15 Knots in the face, and this engine will move me easily into it.

I chose the 3.5 without reverse gear, so I can turn it around, lock it and motor sail while it's ahead of mid ship and actually pulling the boat.
Only for very light winds and if I want to get in before dark... otherwise I sail, when heading into port, I sit at the back, near the engine, I can turn it around and accelerate for stopping the boat before I crash into the wall. I explain this clearly in the dead bottom video.
I'm happy

the motor is mounted on a swing, in the shunting vid above you can see it raised, in the Vid below, you will see it in it's lower position, driving the boat.

In the lowest video, dead at the bottom, you will see a video of how I upgraded the engine, by the way mine is a short shaft which is perfect, since it disappears under deck, it can turn 360 degrees... Just to note the swing will crash only into big choppy waves, but it deflects the water nicely and I have no problems, Black sea waves are very steep and nasty, though having the engine at mid ship, keeps it high and dry, yet it never comes out. Good Luck!

Keep Shunting, Proa sailor

the Force is with U. "If u don't fail you're nothing..."
Balkan Shipyards

 

A well set up shunter can go anywhere a tacking boat can go. In fact, it can go a lot of places a tacking boat can't go. For example:
Tacking in big wind and waves where tacking multis often get in irons or have to back the headsail or start the motor to tack successfully. Well set up shunters dump the mainsheet, the boat stops, sheet on the new main sheet, the rudders rotate automatically and you steer onto the new course. The process can be safely stopped or reversed at any stage. It is not as fast as a boat with self tacking jib, but can be as fast (and less effort) than a boat with overlapping headsail or large square topped mainsail which needs to be eased and resheeted each tack.
Gybing in big winds and waves where a tacking boat is prone to runaway surfs, booms and travellers crashing over and banging into the shrouds and headsails flogging. The shunter shunts the same way as it tacks. Not as quick as gybing, but a lot less stress.
Running aground where a tacker has to kedge or motor off, where a shunter shunts and sails off.

Apart from these situations, sailing a shunter should be the same as sailing any other sort of boat.

 

It seemed obvious to me, too. You would think a serious "shunter" would know this.

 

Thanks for the comment Rob,
The biggest problem with shunting is sea room. Proas have to bear away and stop before the shunting business starts...
In hazardous sailing grounds this could become a huge problem vs tacking, shunting is also slower, meaning yo can lose the ground you gained if beating to windward over very short tacks (Shunts)...
The problem surely exists

Anyway, multies in irons is a huge problem, and gybing a boat to windward out of a bay, is much worse than shunting out of a bay...
Yet engines solve these problems, and shunters like open waters, so do I....

Keep Shunting Rob
May the Force B with U

Balkan Shipyards

 

Ray Watson, I send you great positive energy, my friend!
It seems you need all you can get....

May the Force be strong with you!
Keep Shunting Shunter....

Balkan Shipyards

 

Rael, I enjoy your attitude and your refreshing approach to proas.

The "problem exists" for proas where the rig needs to change ends or the rudders need time consuming attention. We learnt this on the Marshalls boat. Unless you were at 90 degrees to the wind, the shunt was hard work, often ending up with the rig in the water. At 90 degrees, it was easy. I have not sailed a proa with a rail for the mast since the German Proa convention in 1995. Same issue, nearly killed the owner/skipper when we got it wrong and the mast fell on his head. Your system resolves the latter, which is great.

Because the rigs don't change ends (and there is no foresail to mess about with), the way we tack/shunt Harryproas upwind is different. We don't alter course, just dump the old sheet(s) and start sheeting on the new sheet(s). The downwind/new-aft sail first if it is a schooner. The boat stops (with a bump if the sheeting on is aggressive) and starts going in the other direction, luffing onto the new course as it goes. The rudders rotate automatically when the boat starts moving on the new tack. The luffing makes it easier to trim the sails, you are pulling in slack sheet until the last metre or so. Because the boat is moving, the (large) rudders have control and steering is established before the boat sails too close to the wind.
To optimise vmg, you luff prior to shunting (see sketch from Shunting — Harryproa https://www.harryproa.com/shunting), but this requires a slightly more complex sheeting arrangement.

From an observer: " I watched Rob shunt his 7.5m/25' proa upwind up the narrow (30m/100' for some of it) boat filled channel in front of his house so fast and easy I thought he must've had an electric motor hidden in the leeward hull. I would've had a very difficult time doing it in a beach cat without stalling, hitting somebody's boat and/or breaking out a canoe paddle. With the exception of a wind surfer, I had never seen a sailboat with a reverse gearbefore. He could head right for something, then throw it in reverse, back away and bolt off in a new direction under perfect control."

Gybing is similar: Don't change course, dump the sheets, sheet on the new foresail first to aid in bearing away onto the new shunt. This can be sped up further with crew moving aft.

 

Thanks Rob,

I agree that my rig needs to be 90 degrees to the wind, if not, the shunt may become impossible...
The drawing you attached cleared up how you can shunt without bearing away. It's interesting!

Could you please write a few words about running dead down wind, I wonder how balanced a Harry would be without flying head sails?
I plan on cruising with my boat... Down wind performance is more important to me than windward performance, I can sail to windward, in fact the boat sails itself to windward, I can sail anywhere I want, yet off the wind my boats shine.

And probably above all, low cost, low tech, low stress is how I think.
Still, thanks for explaining your point of view, you got me thinking.....

Keep Shunting man, and exploring shunting technologies...
All the best

Rael

 

Hi Rael , how is progress on Havaya 30/25 ?

 

She's sailing my friend, I decided at the last moment to change her name to "Crystal Clear" since that's where we started...
Balkan Shipyards was born 13 years ago while building my 1st Proa Crystal Clear...
I owe her, she's the mother! Proa number 4 takes it all back to where it began...

Crystal Clear a cruising shunter.
Keep Shunting
Balkan Shipyards