Howard,
I wish I was as lucky to start building boats when I was 12!!! Cedar strip is the real thing, I love those canoes, I do hope a day will come when I build hulls of wood vs plywood.
As you say, many unhappy sailors are so only because they chose bigger boats than their pockets.... Or faster boats than they need, A high tech racer, designed to win races, is a very poor off wind cruiser, not to mention how poor one can become maintaining so much complicated and expensive rigging..... Hey, but that's what's flashy, that's what wins races, and that has become the norm.............?
It's truly amazing how simple and cheap sailing can be, if one can "do the math". My math took me down a proa road that almost broke my sailing spirit for life. Thank god I finally got it right on my third proa build, A rough road of failure and frustration have lead to success...
"Crystal Clear" my 23 foot cruiser, almost killed us, as I lost control over her very complicated Crab Claw Schooner rig, while exiting a rocky bay, leading to an almost shipwreck. With no engine rigs must be flawless! "Why Not?" my second attempt, a very fast boat again Crab Claw rigged, that scared me after I understood that reefing in the workshop and reefing at sea are two vert different things........
Finally Junk rigged, "Make O'Break" (which I named that way cos I said, if this doesn't work I'm quitting!) brought back my confidence in a wink, reefing is everything on a cruiser! I feel this design, may prove successful on boats even up to mid 30 foot range. I hope in the near future I find the time and economical strength to build such a cruiser......
Finally, I feel proas can be made as safe as can be and they could become very serious cruising machines, since those are my goals. I don't intend to keep on building small day sailor boats, I build these as prototypes to test ideas, for a big cruising version. I will say though, proas flatten seas! No mono can be as sea kindly as a well built proa, I learned that with Crystal Clear, she is amazing! A rough Black sea chop is like a walk in the park on that boat....
Junk rig proa micro cruising, from BSY soon coming your way........
Thanks for your support Howard, it means a lot when it comes from true sailors!
Best regards.
Rael.