This blog documents the construction and voyages of a ”paraw“, a traditional Filipino outrigger sailboat, on Palawan Island, the Philippine’s westernmost province.
The paraw is 74 feet long and 9 feet at its widest point. It has two masts, four sails and requires a crew of three to five people.
We built the Paraw built to keep the tradition of sailing alive in Palawan. Exploiting the shared knowledge of historians and sailors, it took our team of local craftsmen two years to build, from design to completion in April 2014.
Blog written by Katherine Jack
Palawan Paraw 
Eddie, I’m tony Barrios. Been sailing Paraws’ a long time. At one time we(my brother and I) had 5 in Boracay(early days). We were constantly experimenting with hull and sail designs for the paraw. My brother sailed one of them(a 20ft) almost to Timor. We also built a catamaran using paraw technology and it worked great. I applaud your effort and wish you the best of luck with that boat but I have one apprehension. The outrigger amas. What are you going to use? The strain of a boat that big on the amas is going to be critical. There will be a lot of weight on them in strong winds and waves. Just my 2 cents worth. Regards to Jack. Best of luck on the amazing undertaking.
Hi Tony, This is Kat (blog writer), thanks for your note, great to hear from you! For the “siko” we plan to use dangkalan or molave and for the “palatik” we will use palumaria. These are all woods that are used for local boat building in Palawan.
Good one Kath & Gener looking forward to ride on it and visit us in Kemdeng..all the best my regards to Gener..:)
Thanks Diokno! We will!
technically, a sailboat can only have one mainsail. the other one can be a mizzen sail or a foresail depending on which mast is higher. Good job btw. we’re looking forward to seeing her in her element. What sort of sail area are we to expect?
Hi Kath! When is it scheduled for sailing? Would love to join! I wish you can make room for me, please let me know when will it take place:) Will be flying in from Laguna. In this era where everything seems to come to an end and where culture is becoming vague and us being the cause of its doom, it is time to enliven and strengthen what we have. Salute to all of you! Looking forward na makadaupang palad kayong lahat! Mabuhay ang noypi!
Hi Maya! We plan to launch the paraw on 31 January, during the second new moon of 2014. If you’re interested to join us, please email info@palawansailing.com for more details. Thanks!
I am happy I discovered this blog via my nephew’s [Ivan Sarenas] posting of the photo on the mast installation. My first thought was it is about the balangay. I hope i get the chance to see it finished and to board it while on static display in one of Palawan ports, hopefully Puerto Princesa or even Rio Tuba / El Nido as these are the places I frequent other than Puerto.
I hope someone can also work on building a Lagatik, a fast craft that is native in Aklan.