Gary Dierking’s T2 Pacific-proa design has a main hull, or vaka, that has a beam of just 1'4". The outrigger, or ama, always remains on the windward side regardless of sailing direction.
It’s not every day you get invited to go sailing by the commodore of your local sailing club, so I was quite excited when the call came one sunny morning in September. The Stoke Gabriel Boating Association overlooks the River Dart in Devon, in southwestern England, so you might reasonably assume that its commodore would own a good, solid local boat like a Westcountry lugger, a Devon Yawl, or perhaps one of the Cornish Shrimpers so ubiquitous in these parts.
But that wasn’t what greeted me on the water that autumn day. Instead, what I saw was a moth-like craft with a low...