SOLOMON ISLANDS WAR CANOE
Long, slender, black and richly decorated with mother of Pearl and bleu ovulum, the Tomako and Qao war canoes are real artistic master pieces and rank amongst the most beautiful of Oceania.
HAWAIIAN OUTRIGGER CANOES, VA'ARanging in size from 20 inches (50.8 cm) to 6 feet (1.82 m), these models are all scaled down to size from either existing sea-going racing canoes or models found in museums, such as the A'a', which is a very large and heavy canoe exhibited at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii. Price on request only.
Prices on request.
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HAWAIIAN FISHING CANOESThis gallery of fishing canoe models reflects the different shapes and sizes in which those canoes were built in Hawaii until the beginning of the 20th century. It also offers an insightful view of how some of the canoe elements were assembled at the time of discovery.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii. Prices on request .
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SOLOMON ISLANDS CANOE"The beauty of the Solomon Island canoes has excited the admiration of all voyagers, navigators and explorers from the time the islands were first visited by white men" wrote the British naturalist Sir Charles Morris Woodford. Recognisable among the hundreds of different Oceanian canoes is the crescent-shaped, plank built, Tomako canoe with its slender lines and fascinating upwardly-projecting bow and stern decorated with shells and feathers.
This was the black painted war canoe of the Solomon Island head hunters.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii. Prices on request .
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HOKULE'AVolumes have been written about the voyages of Hokule'a. TV documentaries have been shown worldwide testifying to the seaworthiness of this remarkable double-hull canoe.
Songs have been composed praising its beauty and relevance in the heart of the Hawaiian people.
Hokule'a was born in 1974 following a proposal to build a replica of an ancient Polynesian voyaging canoe by the Polynesian Voyaging Society and to conduct a round-trip voyage between Hawaii and Tahiti. The voyage's purpose was to investigate Polynesian non-instrument navigation. In the years since its first, and very successful voyage in 1976, Hokule'a and its crew of skilled navigators and sailors, have crossed the Pacific Ocean many times.
The design of Hokule'a is based on pictorial reconstructions by Herbert Kawainui Kane who is an authority on Polynesian voyaging canoes.
His book "Voyagers" contains a wonderful selection of images illustrating voyaging canoes. Some of the model canoes in this section have been inspired by those illustrations. This album is primarily dedicated to the double-hull voyaging canoe HOKULE'A.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii.
Price on 12",18", 24" and 36 inches scale models of Hokule'a on request.
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HAWAIIAN VOYAGING CANOESThis album illustrates Hawaiian Voyaging canoe models built over the years by Francis Pimmel. However it does not include the HOKULE’A , the most famous voyaging canoe of them all, for which a separate album was created in this gallery.
Ancient Hawaiian voyaging canoes consisted of two identical hulls connected by arched cross booms. The curved booms raised the decking well over water, eliminating wave resistance and affording drier and more comfortable positions for passengers and freight.
Lashed on top of the arched cross booms was a narrow wooden platform (deck) called the “pola”, making it better suited for long distance voyages. Sometimes a small house was
built on the deck for added protection. Double-hull voyaging canoes were equipped with a uniquely Hawaiian form of oceanic sprit sail called a “crab claw”. The sail material
for the Hawaiian “crab claw” was most often matting made of finely plaited lauhala leaves, also called pandanus. The mats were overlapped horizontally and sewn up in reverse positions, thus giving the visual impression of matting of two different colors.
The renowned French naval architect Admiral Paris and the Englishman John Webber’s
1778 sketches of “Sandwich Islands” canoes accurately depict the rigging and particular design of the Hawaiian type sail.
In the account of Cook’s third voyages the size of the largest Hawaiian Voyaging canoe, as actually measured, is given as 70-feet long, 12-feet broad and 3.5-feet deep.
It is on record that an old wrecked voyaging canoe on the coast of Hawaii was 108 feet long. Some of these canoes could carry up to 140 men.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii.
Price on 20", 24", 28" or 32 inch scale models of voyaging canoes on request only. |
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SAMOAN CANOEThe Samoan canoe builders had a very inventive spirit leading to innovation in the execution of their trade. They built the most beautiful canoes in central Polynesia, copied but rarely equalled in the other archipelagos, with exception of the "alia", which is not of Samoan origin, but Fijian.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii.
Price on request.
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MARQUESAN DOUBLE-HULL CANOEWhile in our time Hawaiian navigators sail the highways of the Pacific aboard the double-hull canoe HOKULEA, legend has it that their ancestors sailed northwest from the Marquesas islands towards Hawaii in double-hull canoes. Inspired by the paintings by Herb Kawainui Kane, this magnificent 36-inch long model is fitted with two sails and type of prow and stern pieces typical of the Marquesas Islands.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii.
Price of this model on request. |
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SAMOAN CANOE WITH SAILThe hulls of Samoan canoes have a remarkable elegance - extremely profiled - and according to experts are of an ideal hydrodynamical shape. The prow takes on the profiled shape of ashark 's head while its stern ends like an elegant tail. Samoans were excellent carpenters and it is said that they first developed the method of plank-build canoes with hidden lashings. Samoans decorated their canoes with sculptures and shells.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii.
Price on request. |
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HAWAIIAN WAR CANOEThis type of canoe is very deep, wide and long (about 70 feet). Legend has it that over 120 vessels of this type were built by King Kamehameha I around 1796 for his conquest of Kaua'i. Most remarkable was the European-style rigging, namely the shooner rig. Some of these canoes were equipped with swivel canons supplied by the English in return for sandelwood. This model has been scaled down from a set of drawings to 4 feet in length and 8 1/2 inches in width.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii.
Price of this model on request. |
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HAWAIIAN RACING CANOEThis 32-inch long model is one of five canoes commissioned by the Kahala Resort and Hotel on Oahu. Racing canoes with sails are generally very colorful and I wanted to imitate that feature in the model. In particular I tried to use wood species with striking colors, but which also coordinate well with each other. Orders for same color model are subject to availability of wood species.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii.
Price on this model on request. |
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MARQUESAS SAILING CANOEThis type of canoe was inspired by Herb Kawainui Kane's illustration of THE STORY OF LAKA in his work VOYAGERS. The legend is about Laka, who builds a canoe to sail to a distant island to seek vengeance for his murdered father and enslaved mother. While sailing with his seven companions the canoe is attacked by demons and a giant squid. Laka and his men dispatch them all and rescue his mother. This story (and variations of it) is told across the Pacific and the canoe is a representation of the Marquesas Islands canoe.
Each model is a work of art and not an off the shelve manufactured product. They are individually crafted by the artist in Hawaii.
Price on both size models on request. |
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CATAMARANThe catamaran vessels of today are the direct descendants of the highly evolved Polynesian sailing canoes. Double-hulled canoes had two important qualities, good buoyancy and stability, and it is these two qualities that led to the development of the modern catamaran. Early attempts at building catamarans started in 1662 when Sir William Petty built his "Double Bottom" to race in Dublin. He beat all comers and established the speed potential of catamarans in the Western Hemisphere. Most early steamboats were catamarans where the paddle wheel was protected between the hulls. The connecting structure between the hulls was used for navigation and since became known as "the bridge".
Western perception of the catamaran has been shaped by yachting rather than commerce.
In the world of yachting, catamarans became better known as "multi-hulls", and they are the most sea kindly vessels on all points of sail, and the safest and most comfortable cruising boats afloat.
Looking at it in a very simple way and comparing it with an ancient Polynesian voyaging canoe, the cross-beams joining the two hulls, on which rest the deck, have been replaced by a bridge, or platform, whose structure cuts directly into the starboard and port hull topsides. On top of the bridge there is the cockpit, from where the catamaran is steered, the saloon, where guests socialize, the skipper charts maps and navigational instruments, and the crew has shelter. Please ask for an estimate of what it would cost to commission Francis Pimmel to make a scale model of your yacht, sailing boat or multi-hull. |
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