Hans klaar has done it again. After his voyages on the Crabclaw rigged Tehini 'Rapanui', he has built and is now sailing a superb 70ft ethnic double canoe, based on drawings of the canoes of the Tuamotus by Commodore Wilkes and Admiral Paris (drawn in approx. 1845).
James Wharram discusses his incredible achievement.
Hans klaar is an ‘Archetype’ sailor, a man who in his sailing skills and exploits stands equal to Slocum, Eric de Bisschop, Moitissier and other rare sailor/builders who roam the oceans. If you look up http://atomvoyages.com/articles/hansklaar.htm this will tell you all about his sailing life till 2004.
I have always felt privileged that for many years Hans sailed and made a living with a 51’ Tehini as his trading ship, along the Indian Ocean coast of Africa. And not only that, whilst many of ‘us’ and others were talking about the Pacific ‘crab claw’ sail rig, he fitted out his Tehini with two Oceanic Crabclaw sails and sailed her half way round the world. After a disappointing time in the Caribbean in 2004 (too touristy and full of yachts for him), he sailed his Rapa Nui into the Pacific ending up in New Zealand, where he sold her to a new owner in Australia and then?
Here is the email we recently received from him:
"Hi James and Hanneke
"How are you all? Went on your web site and saw in the forum that the hunt was on for who has seen the whereabouts of my old boat Rapa Nui, funny that. Well I have been rather busy myself the last 9 months and gave birth, or so it seems, to a new voyaging canoe and the teething seems also to be over its worst, after sailing 2000 miles, most of it over open ocean.
"So I can now say, yes in its extant it took me 4 years to dream up, 6 months to build (from 2 bare tree trunks 4 foot diameter and 27 feet long), 2 months for the rig, crab claw naturally, a very refined version, asymmetric hulls, built along the line of the Anaan, Tuamotuan canoes as seen by both Commodore Wilkes and Admiral Paris (approx. 1845).
"Here are the dimensions: starboard hull is 71 feet LOA, 8 feet beam, 6 feet deep; port hull is 57 feet LOA, 8 feet beam, 6 feet deep; draft over all is 2 feet. Deck platform 42 by 21 feet, beam over all 22 feet, 7000 kg plus/minus looking at the weight of the dried wood used.
"Tacks like a dream all one way, no hanging back at the last moment, and takes off once through the eye of wind almost at once, holds a good 50 degrees on the wind and leaves a nice straight wake aft. I can handle her totally on my own, self-steers very well. Something funny goes on with this one mast that seems to make it possible. One example is 400 miles in 40 hours, jib to tiller steering (controlled surfing if one can call it that) with fully reefed main in 28 knots of wind.
"Will head out for the Pacific come January, are at the moment in Brazil on our way to Trinidad-Tobago. Hope you like the lines and that all is well in Devoran.
"Greetings, Hans klaar"
I will add some background information that lifts this simple account into the heroic, mind-boggling achievement it is.
In 1994, by ‘a mistake’ from someone in the Tahitian branch of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, we were invited to sail our Polynesian style Pahi 63 ‘Spirit of Gaia’ to the “Great Gathering of Canoes” held in March 1995 in Raiatea.
On receiving this invitation we sailed 8,600 nautical miles, from the Canaries almost non-stop across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, being the first to arrive in Huahine. Next into the lagoon came the Hokule’a and Hawaiiloa from Hawaii, both at the end of a towrope, then came Te Aurere from New Zealand, shipped to Tahiti on the deck of a freighter. Then later came Te Au O Tonga from the Cook Islands, again towed (and it managed to arrive with a broken mast!).
After one month of being messed around in the Society Islands (we lacked the 1/16 of Polynesian blood to qualify for officially taking part) and to our great disappointment never seeing any of the canoes sailing, we left in disgust and sailed to New Zealand, leaving the rest of the canoes to be 'towed' and escorted to Hawaii, while the government sponsored 70’ long Tahitian canoe ‘Tahitinui' sank on the end of its tow rope before reaching the Marquesas.
The next year in New Zealand I met Greg Brightwell, a Maori, who had had similar experiences as myself. In 1985, together with the legendary Tahitian, Francis Cowan (Francis sailed with Eric de Bisschop on his raft voyage), he built a magnificent traditional double canoe in Tahiti called ‘Havaiikinui” and sailed it without escort ship to New Zealand.
When I met him, Greg was pretty bitter, for his voyage had been largely ignored and been overshadowed by Hokule’a’s high profile arrival in New Zealand at the same time. To top it all the Tahitian government had cannibalized his beautiful canoe to build their flagship the Tahitinui. (They cut off the dugout part of each hull and built up the topsides into something that would have looked good in a Hollywood film, but unfortunately did not sail).
Havaiikinui, a sad sight with her dugout hulls cut off. Photo taken in 1995 in Tahiti.
Tahitinui, built with the cannibalized hulls of Havaiikinui (1995, Raiatea), seen here under tow with Te Aurere of New Zealand.
Then last year a book was published in New Zealand, to accompany a world-traveling exhibition about the Pacific Seafarers, called ‘Vaka Moana’. Though a beautiful book, full of superb material, it has flaws.
The chapter, written by one of the founders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society (and instrumental in the building of Hokule’a), about the ‘Renaissance’ of the boats of the Pacific does not mention what was achieved by all the people building and sailing Wharram ‘Polynesian Catamarans’ over all the world’s Oceans. Many of their superb voyages were already made before Hokule’a was thought of.
But then it also does not mention Eric de Bisschop and his epic voyage by double canoe, or the work done by Harold Gatty, the first person to revive the art of Polynesian Navigation (maybe they also did not qualify, due to a lack of Polynesian blood?)
I wrote to Hans on receipt of his exciting email:
“Hans, do you realize what you have done? You have made a lot of people, who have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars of other people’s money over 30 years, look extremely stupid.”
Hans, with his voyages on Rapa Nui and now building and sailing this even more ethnic Polynesian double canoe ‘Ontong Java’, has done what the Polynesian Voyaging Society has still not achieved after 30 years.
New Ethnic Polynesian Double Canoe built by Hans Klaar
Authored by: Anonymous on
Wednesday, September 17 2008 @ 05:31 PM BST
hi maryanne if you email me alastair bond,your shipmate on that voyage sysalamandraatyahoo.co.uk
i will give you hans email and catch up on old timesl onboard isoka
i will give you hans email and catch up on old timesl onboard isoka