Thursday, August 6, 2015

Coco Keeling Islands Racing Canoes

This is a neat video of racing canoes on the Coco Keeling Islands, a small group of islands in the middle of nowhere, Indian Ocean, about 1/2 way between the west coast of Australian and Sri Lanka. They look to be a hybrid of western and native influences. The double-ended, narrow hull features a chined, deep Vee with a large, straight keel log, made necessary because it doesn't appear that they carry a center board or daggerboard. The rig is a squat main/jib, Bermudian in planform. These canoes seem strictly for racing.



Cocos Keeling Islands - Hari Raya Jukong Racing 2015 from Rik Soderlund on Vimeo.


5 comments:

  1. Hey, that was fun, brightened up my morning! They must be pretty light, as they don't stand up unaided.......lovely overhead shots, like a ballet. And a class I'd never heard of before. Oh, to be a wandering sailing reporter visiting exotic parts of the world, filming and recording for posterity all those fascinating craft.....
    BTW, look out for a DVD called "the Last Sailors - The Final Days of Working Sail" - it was a Channel 4 documentary series in the 80's, still available on DVD, with voice-over by Orson Welles. a must see......
    Mike

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  2. Ahh, just looked it up on Amazon - not available, might have to try to burn a copy.

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  3. http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Sailors-Orson-Welles/dp/B000N4SHUS

    try that...

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  4. Long and fast - I notice that they take a little bit of time to tack, they don't exactly spin on a dime do they - nevertheless they look great sailing in such a beautiful setting.

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  5. Mike,

    Looks like that DVD might be just the ticket for a Christmas present.

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