Editing Proa (section)

==Early Western proas==
{{Blockquote|Sailing is no name for it – flying is better. Out into the bay she skipped, boys yelling with delight on the uplifted outrigger, spray from the lee bow and steering oar riven into vapor by the speed blowing to leeward.|author=[[Ralph Munroe|R. M. Munroe]] |source="A Flying Proa", ''The Rudder'', June 1898}}

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, many in Europe and America  became interested in the proa.  Western boat builders such as [[Ralph Munroe|R. M. Munroe]] and Robert Barnwell Roosevelt ([[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s uncle) reflected its influence.  Into the 20th century, the proa was one of the fastest sailing craft that existed.  The proa design is still the basis<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/aerohydro/othercraftframeset.htm |title=Mr Smith's Amazing Sailboats |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028020313/http://www.geocities.com/aerohydro/othercraftframeset.htm |archive-date=28 October 2009}}</ref> for many boats involved in [[speed sailing]].

The first well-documented Western version of the proa was built in 1898 by [[Ralph Munroe|Commodore Ralph Middleton Munroe]] of the [[Biscayne Bay]] Yacht Club.  Yacht-design giant [[Nathanael Herreshoff]], a friend of Munroe, may have also had an interest in the project.  A small model of the Anson-Brett proa is collected at the Herreshoff Marine Museum in [[Rhode Island]]; its maker is uncertain.

Over the following years, Munroe built several more.  They were all destroyed by the mid-1930s, when a severe hurricane<!-- The [[1938 New England hurricane]]?  Or did he take them down to Florida? -->  leveled Munroe's bayside boatshop.  At least two of his designs were documented in articles in ''The Rudder'', as was one by Robert B. Roosevelt.  Small proas may have been brought back to the United States in the late 19th century, but documentation is sparse.  Munroe and Roosevelt appeared to be the first two builders to adapt the proa to Western building techniques.

===Royal Mersey Yacht Club===
In 1860 a member of the [[Royal Mersey Yacht Club]] in [[England]] built a copy of a Micronesian proa.  He used the traditional asymmetric hull, flat on the lee side, and a decked dugout ama (outrigger). While no quantitative record was made of its speed, it was noted that the proa would run at speeds that would bury the bows of any other vessel.  It carried three times the ratio of sail area to immersed midships section than the fastest yachts in the club and yet drew only {{convert|15|in|cm}}.<ref name=Folkard />

===Munroe's 1898 proa===
[[Image:Munroe 1898 proa.jpg|thumb|right|R. M. Munroe's 1898 proa]]
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.  This drawing had been circulated in the press, for example in William Alden's articles in ''Harper's Magazine''. (These were reprinted in a small book called ''The Canoe and the Flying Proa''.)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp10413|title=The Canoe, and The Flying Proa: or, Cheap Cruising and Safe Sailing, by W. L. Alden – The Online Books Page|website=onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu}}</ref>  This proa was one of several either captured or seen under sail when Anson stopped at [[Tinian]] during a Pacific crossing.  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. This view as based on the fact that other Micronesian proa masts were raked end-to-end as the vessel shunted and the fact that a raked mast shifts the center of effort of the sail which would influence helm balance. However, Brett's placing of the mast in a vertical position has found to be accurate when replicas of the "Anson" proa were built and sailed by the Marinas-based organization 500 Sails that found that in many points of sail under many conditions the proa sailed well with the mast in a vertical position.<ref>500 Sails Executive Director and Chamorro Proa Builder Pete Perez</ref> 500 Sails also found that the mast could be raked to advantage in many situations and noted that the mast step depicted in the "Anson" drawing could be interpreted as depicting a rotational point rather than a rigid mast step that would not allow raking. 500 Sails canoes employ rotational mast steps that allow mast raking.

Munroe, however, was a talented boat designer who was able to work around any problems with the drawings.  His adaptations can be seen in successive proas.  Rather than the deep, asymmetric hull of a traditional proa, Munroe created flat-bottomed hulls (similar to the ''fisolera'' referred to by Pigafetta),<ref name=pigafetta/> with keels or centerboards for lateral resistance.  His first iteration had an iron center fin with a half-oval profile.  Rather than the traditional crab-claw sail's spars which meet at the front, Munroe's sails used what could be described as a triangular [[lug sail]] or [[spritsail]] with a boom, similar to the modern [[lateen]] sail with a shorter upper spar.

Munroe's first proa was only {{convert|30|ft|m}} long, yet was capable of speeds which Munroe estimated at {{convert|18|kn|km/h}}. His article in ''The Rudder'' describes what can only be [[planing (sailing)|planing]] on the flat hull.  As this was before the advent of planing power boats, this proa was one of the first boats capable of planing.  This helped produce its amazing speed when most boats were limited to their [[hull speed]]—they had too little power to achieve planing speed, and yet were not designed to exceed [[hull speed]] without planing.  For example, a {{convert|30|ft|m|adj=on}} boat with too little power to plane, and with a hull form and displacement that didn't permit it to exceed hull speed without planing, would have a maximum speed of about {{convert|7.3|kn|km/h}}; Munroe's proa could reach nearly 2.5 times that speed.  This accomplishment was the nautical equivalent to the [[Bell X-1|X-1]] breaking the sound barrier.

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 (boat)|sharpie]] hull made of two {{convert|32|ft|m|adj=on}} planks, a couple of bulkheads and a crossplanked bottom.  By lucky accident he may have been the first sailor to plane his boat.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.duckworksbbs.com/plans/jim/gizmo/index.htm |title=Gizmo |access-date=2007-10-26}} "It planed although he didn't use that word because it hadn't been invented yet. I'm wondering if it was the first planing boat?" Jim Michalak</ref>

===Roosevelt's Mary & Lamb===
[[Robert Barnwell Roosevelt]], uncle of [[President of the United States|American President]] [[Theodore Roosevelt]], also built a proa at about the same time.  He used it sailing from [[Long Island]]. It was significantly different but equally creative, and at {{convert|50|ft|m}}, much longer.  From his 1898 article in ''The Rudder'', it appeared the main hull of Roosevelt's proa was an open {{convert|4|ft|m|adj=on}} wide [[scow]] hull; the ama was a smaller, fully decked scow which looked like it could rock on a single aka (supporting beam).  The mast was a bipod arrangement with both masts stepped to windward, with a boomed, balanced lugsail suspended from the apex.  A balanced rudder at each end managed itself by pivoting 180° when its end was the "bow", and leeboards were used.

Roosevelt's short article is accompanied by photographs showing his proa ''Mary & Lamb'', at rest and under sail. It is not clear if the boat predated Munroe's 1898 proa.

===Munroe's 1900 Proa===
[[Image:Munroe 1900 proa.jpg|thumb|right|R. M. Munroe's 1900 proa]]
Since Munroe wasn't aware of the raking mast, his 1900 model used two [[daggerboard]]s set fore and aft of the mast, which would allow adjustment of the center of lateral resistance to provide helm balance. From the drawings, it appears the mast is higher as well, allowing a larger sail. The sail design also changed, with the upper spar now being slightly longer than the upper edge of the sail, and projecting past the apex slightly to allow the apex to be attached to the hull. The sail was loose footed, with the boom attached to the upper spar near the sail apex, and to the clew of the sail. His article in a 1900 issue of ''The Rudder'' included more details on the construction of his second proa. A 1948 book of sailboat plans published by ''The Rudder'' includes the following specifications for the 1900 proa:

* Length overall {{convert|30|ft|m}}
* Beam (of main hull) {{convert|2|ft|6|in|m}}
* Draft of hull about {{convert|5|in|cm}}
* Draft with boards down {{convert|2|ft|5|in|m}}
* Sail area {{convert|240|sqft|m2}}

From the drawings, the distance from the center of the main hull to the center of the aka is about {{convert|12|ft|m}}.