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500 Sails goes to NZ to help build proa
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- From left, Jerrold Calvo, Mike Finey, Ray “Boss” Alvarez, Jay Igisaiar, Pete Perez, and Ron Acfalle. (Contributed Photo)
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- The group will be working from what is referred to as the “Anson drawing” of a Chamorro canoe from 1742 that was drawn on Tinian. (Contributed Photo)
Members of the 500 Sails organization left yesterday morning for New Zealand to build and bring home a 25-foot prototype of a Chamorro proa (sailing canoe). The trip will take them 36 hours.
The travelers include Pete Perez, 500 Sails executive director; Ray “Boss” Alvarez, senior sakman leader; Jerrold Calvo, business manager; Jay Igisaiar and Mike Finey, sakman leaders. Also joining them is traditional seafaring practitioner Ron Acfalle from Ulitao in Guam. They will be gone for about a month.
They will be working from what is referred to as the “Anson drawing” of a Chamorro canoe from 1742 that was drawn on Tinian.
The master boat builder in New Zealand was originally going to come to Saipan but health issues did not allow him to travel. That, combined with the delay in the repair of the Guma Sakman in Susupe, helped guide the decision to go to him. The group will be working in a workshop in Waihi set up for building large fiberglass boats (yachts, catamarans, etc.) and living together for the duration, some perhaps even in tents. They will be buying a barbecue. The hosts don’t have one, and are going to get a real treat when the men start cooking.
This is a historic group of Chamorro and Carolinian men that will change the face of the lagoon as they begin to fill it with traditional Chamorro and Carolinian canoes made of modern materials. This will be done by helping the community to build and sail their own canoes. Using modern materials will allow them to make canoes accessible to everyone.
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500 Sails is grateful for the support of its board of directors and advisory board, the CNMI Department of Land and Natural Resources, Mariana Resort and Spa, the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, Commonwealth Council for Arts & Culture, and the Social and Economic Development Strategies program of the Administration for Native Americans. (PR)
