Whitupau finally met the Salish Sea & will be at Port Townsend next weekend

Whitupau is an Oceanic proa dug out of a Western Red Cedar log. Its hull form is Micronesian-inspired (longitudinally symmetrical, but transversely asymmetrical with more camber on the windward side). Its structure is Māori-inspired.

To accommodate the skipper's physical limitations, the waka features a novel rig enabling the skipper to shunt the mast from one end of the waka to the other while seated midship. 

The waka is named in Māori for Alkaid, the zenith star of its home port on San Juan Island. (Māori waka take the gender fitting their namesake - the waka is an "it".)

A general overview of how the waka was designed and built is incorporated into the builder's new novel, Tūpuna Rock.