Group sails Chamorro canoe prototype
The 500 Sails organization has successfully sailed its first prototype of a Chamorro canoe that was built based on the “Anson drawing” of 1742.
According to 500 Sails executive director Peter Perez, years of research led to the discovery of a blueprint of an original Chamorro canoe, referred to as the “Anson drawing.”
George Anson created the blueprint based on an original model of a Chamorro canoe found on Tinian in 1742 and taken apart by hand.
Perez and his group then built a canoe based on Anson’s drawing. The group has been working on it, perfecting the prototype, and building it exactly like the blueprint. The finished prototype was named Neni.
Neni was built within a couple of months and was recently taken out to the ocean to be sailed. Neni is one of only five Chamorro canoes worldwide that is built based on Anson’s drawing of the original Chamorro canoe.
According to Perez, Neni sailed perfectly. With its navigators having more practice, it could live up to its full potential and speed, he said.
Neni will be the basis for the canoes the organization is planning to build. The organization plans to build 60 Chamorro canoes in the next three years. The next canoe is already in the works at the 500 Sails workshop.
500 Sails has a vision of bringing back the forgotten culture of sailing the seas on canoes made by islanders.
According to 500 Sails board chair Emma Perez, the organization’s vision is to bring back the indigenous culture of sailing the seas, navigating the ocean, and bringing back what the ancient Chamorro lost during the Spanish era.
According to Perez, Chamorro canoes were burned by the Spaniards, leading to the loss of their way of life. The Spaniards forbade the ancient Chamorros from rebuilding their canoes and they no longer went back to that way of living.
The organization hopes to retrieve that aspect of the Chamorro culture—to have 500 Chamorro canoes by 2030 and to rekindle the culture of sailing in every Chamorro.
The organization holds swimming classes and offers the option for an individual to build their own canoe free of charge.
Interested individuals are required to take up swimming classes and must complete 120 hours of volunteer work with the organization before they are eligible to build their own canoes.
Swimming classes are free and are paid for by grants that fund the organization’s mission.
500 Sails urges everyone on the island to consider joining 500 Sails and to be a part of the group.
Really? Under the expense of our underprivileged and our governor stated that $200,000 for such program, while our working poor were or are fending for themselves. No reliable public transportation, no aid to our economic disadvantage to build their homes on their homesteads, etc., and we continue to support such efforts for the frequent flyers.
I agree that there are a lot of better ways that CNMI annual budgets and Federal grants awarded to the CNMI should be spent. However I understood that the funding for Group Sails came directly from a grant these people applied for directly and not out of any CNMI funding or Federal funding given to the CNMI – but I could have misunderstood. For me however it is good to see ANY result from money spent as budgets seem to evaporate here with no trace of how they were spent.
Yes, if I am not mistaken such group received funding ($ 548.000 for three years) from the Administration for Native Americans and there is no problem with such arrangement, but when our governor pledged $200,000 to build our own canoes to such organization, then we have a problem with such scenario. Many of our underprivileged and our working poor were or are trying to make ends meet each and everyday. Our underprivileged were or are being deprived of their homesteads for being economic disadvantage. Our working poor have to fork up more than one third of their salaries to pay for their transportation to work and from work each pay period. Our underprivileged were or are being forced to live in sub standard housings or barracks, because that is the only housing arrangement they can afford. And thanks to the illegal taxis, the failure of our government or governor on providing regular public transportation had not been an issue over the years.
I personally had lived on such sub standard barracks in the past when I make my annual trek to the CNMI, so I can understand how our underprivileged had to go through for being poor and I had spent thousands of dollars helping a working poor individual over the last year, because our dearest DPL Secretary or her employees had threaten him/her that his/her homestead would be taken away. And what really puzzles me, the DPL encouraged him/her to returned his/her homestead back to the government and I can’t see myself letting such thing happen.
Our governor needs to get his priority straight relating to our unfortunate individuals within our community, because next election is fast approaching.
“We have funding, $200,000, to build our own canoe here. We are in the process of making this a reality,” said Torres.”
“We are going to put more funding into our culture; both into the canoe and into the music industry of the culture,” he added.”