Auntie Oba sets sail

A non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the CNMI’s maritime traditions, 500 Sails, launched its latest canoe, or proa, called Auntie Oba at the beachside in front of the Guma Sakman on Sunday. The boat is named in honor of the late Jacoba Seman, who was lovingly referred to as Auntie Oba.

“It’s a very special moment for the family. When we found out about this project, we were very humbled and very touched by having Auntie Oba be the matron of one of these canoes,” said Vincent Seman. Auntie Oba was his mother’s older sister.

Seman wanted to thank in particular his cousin, Eloise Furey, who helped make the naming of the proa in honor of Auntie Oba possible. “Auntie Oba has always had an affinity for the ocean, and having this canoe [lets us] know that her spirit lives on,” Seman said.

For 500 Sails board secretary/treasurer and co-founder Emma Perez, she is just happy to see another addition to the organization’s fleet. Auntie Oba is 500 Sails’ fifth proa that the public can ride on every Sunday.

“[I’m] very happy. I mean just look at [those five] canoes out on the water. It’s just beautiful, and I can imagine 10, 20 times more than that. It’s so unique for the CNMI that we have two maritime cultures here, and that they’re coming together,” said Perez.

Auntie Oba’s design, as with 500 Sails’ four other proas, is based off of a 1742 drawing of an original proa done by an English nautical draftsman. Known as the “Anson Drawing,” the sketches were surprisingly detailed enough to serve as a blueprint for what was then hailed by the foreign sailors as the fastest boat on Earth.

“We’re very lucky, it was like [the Anson Drawing] was like the ancestors giving us a gift to move forward. …We replicated [the drawing] as close as we could. We wanted to build that canoe, not make any changes,” said Perez.

Currently, 500 Sails has a variety of free lessons and events for the public every week. In what they dub as “Swim, Build, Sail,” the organization holds free swimming lessons for adults on Tuesday mornings from 6am to 7am, with children’s lessons on Sundays from 10am to 11am. Proa-building sessions are currently limited due to COVID-19, but once restrictions are lifted the group hopes to fully reopen the sessions to the public. As for “Sail,” the organization currently holds Sunday Sails where the public can ride on proas for free from 10am to 2pm, and once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, 500 Sails aims to reinstate its formal sailing lessons, or lalåyak.