Drua, also known as na drua, n'drua, ndrua or waqa tabu ("sacred canoe", Fijian pronunciation: [waᵑɡa taᵐbu]), is a double-hull sailing boat that originated in the south-western Pacific islands.

Expertly designed and hand crafted over a period of 6 to 7 years, the Drua was a double hulled canoe, gigantic in size and requiring total community involvement in its construction. Up to 118 feet in length, with a mast height of up to 70 feet, it could carry in excess of 150 warriors!

May 12, 2021 · They were plank-built ships and were ingeniously constructed without metals measuring 30 meters (98 ft) in length and 5 feet deep. The double drua could carry 200 men and easily reached around fifteen knots of sailing in good wind. Massive triangular sails of pandanus matting powered drua.

"The Fijian double canoe (wangga ndrua) was the largest and finest sea-going vessel ever designed and built by natives of Oceania before contact with Europeans." Druas were large, up to 100 feet (30 m) long, and could carry over 200 people. Despite being called "canoes" they were not dugouts, but plank-built ships.

Druas are double-hull sailing boats. Technically, a drua is a pacific proa, they do not tack but rather shunt (stern becomes the bow and viceversa). Both ends of each hull are identical, but the hulls are of different sizes and the smaller one is always sailed to winward.

"The Fijian double canoe (wangga ndrua) was the largest and finest sea-going vessel ever designed and built by natives of Oceania before contact with Europeans." Druas were large, up to 100 feet (30 m) long, and could carry over 200 people. Despite being called canoes, they were not dugouts but plank-built ships.

However, the function of the "ai vorati" is to allow for the very heavy mast to slide alongside it during the operation of the "cavu", meaning the bow becoming the stern or vise-versa. It is that reason which necessitates the construction of buttress arches or "rokoroko" to properly maintain the mast in those vessels.

Oct 1, 2009 · Each plank of a Drua had its own name and was set in place according to tradition and ceremony. The result was a fine, fast sailing vessel capable of riding out the roughest seas, but at a cost of many lives due to the ceremonial sacrifices required during construction.

The Fijian double canoe (wangga ndrua, spelt waqa drua in Fijian) was the largest and finest sea-going vessel ever designed and built by natives of Oceania before contact with Europeans.

Large and fast, some drua could reach speed of up to fifteen knots in a good wind. They were among the most finely crafted vessels in Fiji, identical in design to the Samoan ‘alia and the Tongan kalia. Drua were built from planks and powered by …