Vanuatu Outrigger Sailing Races



Here are a couple of sailing outriggers from Lelepa Island racing in a cultural festival held recently in Vanuatu. I did not know that sprit rigs were in use there. Note the low attachment point of the sprit which prevents any chance of reefing the sail by lowering the sprit. The alternative is to remove the sprit altogether and fold the top half of the sail down and around the mast.
Thanks to Francis Hickey for taking the photos and Don Miller for sending them.


Comments

  1. With the bottom of the sprit so low the sail almost looks like a crab claw on a tallish stub mast, with the small difference that the top of the sail is attached to the 'stub mast'

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    1. That's the cool part about this sail cut. The square sprit doesn't perform as well as this one. I got this design from an old Chief from a small offshore island (used old bed sheets as sail cloth) in Vanuatu so we could reproduce it in dacron and promote the revival of canoe sailing throughout Vanuatu, as many areas lost the skills through colonial impacts and the introduction of power boats.

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  2. Makes you wonder why they didn't just use a crabclaw or oceanic sprit?

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    1. The crab claw is a bit trickier to sail on an outrigger when it comes to shunting with a small crew. If the sail happens to get back winded, the canoe quickly gets into trouble. With the sprit a single hander can easily tack through the wind, and be underway again.

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  4. The plans for the Wharram Melenesia have 2 rigs, a crab claw and a sprit. The sprit rig is similar in that it shows that the sprit can be removed and the sail folded down so the peak is at the tack of the sail. The rig is loose footed though, so I would see if you could use the sprit as a sprit boom so the sail might set better doubled down like that.

    Is it just me, or do those sails look exactly like a kids diamond kite? Pretty cool stuff!

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  5. It looks so good in the post.
    Many thanks for your nice posting, I like it.
    Bathmate

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  6. Have just seen this post rather late in the game! But to respond to some of these comments; the sprit sail was introduced to Vanuatu with the coming of Europeans and it displaced the traditional 'wingtip sail' (Oceanic sprit sail) by about 1900 throughout central and north Vanuatu. The southern islands of Vanuatu had some stronger links with Polynesia through the Polynesia back migration to the Western Pacific some 1000 years ago, and they traditionally used and Oceanic Lateen sail (same sail used on the Drua of Fiji) that was a shunting rig. The sprit sail also displaced the Oceanic Lateen a bit earlier that 1900. We were able to find one old gentleman who still knew about it from his grandfather, and from his information we revived the Oceanic Lateen on Aneityum Island in 1999. Canoes from Aneityum (and Lelepa with the sprit rig) attended the Te Ngaru Matua (Ancient Wave) waka Festival in New Zealand in March 2000. As a side note, we wanted to sail our traditional canoes attending the Festival against the America Cup vessels that were competing in Long Bay just north of Aucklanad. They refused our challenge, however. I guess they are still wary of multi-hulls :) Francis Hickey, Vanuatu Cultural Centre

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    1. I was there sailing my little outrigger with those guys at the Ancient Wave festival. the wingtip sail seemed to work just fine.

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  7. Hi Gary - that was a fabulous Festival of canoes and sailing! Wish we had more like that. Do you know whatever happened to the guys who organized it? Peter McCurdy (who was the former Director of the Maritime Museum in Auckland), Han-Dieter Bader (who sailed a little Wharram he made at the Festival) along with Jefferson Chapple who sailed a little ply shunting canoe, more or less Kiribati style he made! I met some great people there (David Lewis and Hek Busby for example). After the Festival I hung around Auckland for a couple of weeks to rig up our sprit rig on one of the OC-6 or 8 (I think it was) that belonged to the women's waka club based at Okahu Bay. We sailed that around the Harbor for a over a week and had a blast dodging ferries, yachts and ships. Leaders from the Iwi living up the hill from Okahu saw us out there, and came down to greet us one afternoon when we came in and presented us with a traditional steering oar they had. The said we could use it for as long as we needed, and that they were so happy to see a canoe sailing around the harbor (full of Maori women and myself) after so many years. About the wingtip you mentioned, research on that design indicates its shape is essentially a delta-foil that creates vortex lift. Stories from the elders here indicates they the that the old guys studied the flight of birds to come up with that design. We are planning a Canoe Festival for Vanuatu's upcoming 4oth Independence Celebration on July 30th this year, but now it is all up in the air due to the pandemic issue. We may have to defer to next year. These Festivals help to stimulate interest in canoes and sailing quite a bit, as more and more people adopt the ease of O/B powered skiffs. Fair Winds, Francis Hickey, Vanuatu Cultural Centre :)

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