The Walap is a traditional ocean-going sailing

outrigger canoe Outrigger boats are various watercraft featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull. They can range from small dugout canoes to large plank-built vessels. Outrigger ...

from the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Intern ...

. It belongs to the Micronesian

proa Proas are various types of multi-hull outrigger sailboats of the Austronesian peoples. The terms were used for native Austronesian ships in European records during the Colonial era indiscriminately, and thus can confusingly refer to the ...

type whose main characteristics are: single main hull,

outrigger An outrigger is a projecting structure on a boat, with specific meaning depending on types of vessel. Outriggers may also refer to legs on a wheeled vehicle that are folded out when it needs stabilization, for example on a crane that lifts ...

-mounted float/ballast, and asymmetric hull profile. Walaps have a lee platform. Like all pacific proas, they are always sailed with the outrigger to windward; they do not tack but "shunt" (reverse direction), so both ends of the boat are identical. The distinction between bow and stern depends only on the heading of the boat. Walaps are not dugouts; only the keel is made of a single bread-fruit log when possible, and the rest are planks sewn together with coconut-fiber lashings, sealed with tree sap. There are three main types of marshallese sailing canoes: * Korkor: a small rowing/sailing canoe used for fishing and transportation in the atoll lagoons. It has a crew of one or two. Used nowadays in very popular regattas. * Tipnol: a medium-sized sailing canoe. Used for travel and fishing in the lagoons and short distance voyaging over open water. Minimum crew is two, may transport up to ten passengers. * Walap: a large, blue-water sailing canoe, reaching up to 30 m in length and able to carry up to 50 people and food supplies for up to seven months. Used mainly for inter-atoll voyaging. These types can vary in design, mainly slenderness of the hull, draft deep and hull-profile asymmetry. Five recognized styles exist: , , , and . Walaps may well represent the most advanced sailing technology of all stone-age cultures, only equaled by Fiji's

drua Drua, also known as na drua, n'drua, ndrua or waqa tabu ("sacred canoe", ), is a double-hull sailing boat that originated in the south-western Pacific islands. Druas do not tack but rather shunt (stern becomes the bow and vice versa). Both ends o ...

External links

program to revive traditional sailing in the Marshall Islandsanaglyphs and stereo-pairs of a walap

References

{{Fishing vessel topics Indigenous boats Sailboat types Multihulls Outrigger canoes