Editing Proa (section)

===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>