Va'a motu( Society Islands)

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Anatol
Posts: 1037
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:13 pm

Va'a motu( Society Islands)

Post by Anatol » Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:00 pm

Tahitian single-outrigger canoe used for interisland travel, for fishing, to visit around the lagoon. Early boats accompanied warring parties, pro-viding transportation and carrying the dead home. Plank-extended dugout hull, sometimes in sections, sewn end-to-end; rounded bottom; truncated stern swept up strongly. Sharp, concave cutwater; squared coverboard extended beyond the bow cutwater, often with low washboard at after end; sometimes hull raised by washstrakes. Long, slender float on port side of hull connected by 2 booms. Foreboom horizontal and attached to the float by 2 pairs of crossed stan¬chions; the flexible stern boom curved down and lashed directly to the float. Va'a initiative was designed to take the wind on both sides , with the balance of the platform , where some of the crew can add weight as necessary to prevent the float from a submerged followed the disaster. A balance board generally extended out the outrigger side as well as the starboard side. When the canoe capsized, a rope was tied to the end of the boom and one of the crew climbed onto the beam to make it sink while pulling on the rope until the sail lifted out of the water,which, with the help of wind, righted the canoe.
Stepped 1, occasionally 2, portable pole masts in forward half; stayed forward, to outrigger boom, and to the balance board. So-called "crab claw" sail of pandanus leaves had a long boom that curved up to run parallel to and beyond the mast. Frequently paddled.
Reported lengths 9.8-12.2m.

French Polynesia 1992; 65f; SG654. Aitutaki 1992г,30с,SG632. Cook Islands 2013; 2,30;60c;SG?
Source : A Dictionary of the world’s Watercraft from Aak to Zumbra. W.Ellis:Polinesian Researches. http://www.britishmuseum.
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aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Va'a motu( Society Islands)

Post by aukepalmhof » Sun Sep 02, 2018 8:29 pm

aitutaki 1992 30c sg 637, scott 464

This stamp issued by the Island of Man shows us Peter Heywood (1772-1831) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Heywood in Matavai Bay, Tahiti, The outrigger under sail is a “va’a motu”, while the other craft is most probably a ship's boat of the HMS PANDORA. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13414&p=19343&hilit=va%27a+motu#p1934
He was on his first voyage midshipman on board HMS BOUNTY to Tahiti. When the BOUNTY was taken over by the mutineers they tried to settle in Tubai Island, about 400 miles south of Tahiti, but the hostile natives made it more desirable to return to Tahiti,
Sixteen mutineers remained in Tahiti under which Peter Heywood, while Christian, eight mutineers, six native men, 12 women, and a little girl sailed on to find an uninhabited island.
Peter Heywood it was said to have been an unwilling participant in the mutiny, was brought back to England and found guilty at court-martial of “not having endeavored to suppress it”, but he was later pardoned and had a distinguished naval career.

Source: watercraft Philately 1989 page 32.
Isle of Man 1989 30p sg 412, scott 391.
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