24' Robinson Ocean Rowing Boat (2021) - MAIWAR

You can see Tom’s voyage in the video series on Off Center Harbor.

Maiwar is a 24′ clinker ocean rowing boat, designed and built by 23-year-old Tom Robinson, to fulfill a childhood dream of rowing solo across the Pacific Ocean.

In 2022 Tom set off from Lima, Peru on his most ambitious adventure yet – to become the youngest person ever to row the Pacific Ocean. For the next 14 months Tom experienced the highs and lows of extreme adventure, facing many challenges along the way. He spent a total of 260 days at sea in complete isolation, as well as many months living in harmony with the inhabitants of the remote islands he visited.

The name MAIWAR (pronounced may-wah), is the local indigenous name for the Brisbane River, her birthplace. Her hull lines are derived from 19th century whaleboats, especially those originating from the Beetle family. Her shape forward of the midsection is pure whaleboat, however, her after sections are fuller than typical. This was a design feature necessary to ensure that she would trim properly when fully laden, most of her stores being aft of midship. On deck she is relatively a conventional ocean rowing boat. She had a central, self-draining cockpit, with a small footwell. Forward she has a spartan cabin with enough room for a full sized bunk with a miniature galley and navigation station. Aft of the cockpit is a single large storage compartment. She has a stern hung rudder aft and a high aspect daggerboard up forward, positioned on the starboard side of the keel.

Maiwar was built over a period of 5 months. Tom worked solo, for 10 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week. After her launch work continued intermittently for some months; trialling and improving where necessary. She is built with a combination of traditional and modern materials and techniques. Modern is all relative, Maiwar could have been built exactly the way she was, 40 years ago, and the techniques used in her construction are centuries old.

She is built using the ‘clinker’ method of construction, with epoxy glue used to fasten the planks. Her backbone is made out of recycled Douglas Fir, her planking is 6.5mm Hoop Pine plywood, which is fastened to Spotted Gum ribs using clenched copper nails, her decks and cabin are also of plywood. Western Red Cedar is used throughout for framing and Australian Cedar is used for brightwork/trim. All the timber used in her construction is either recycled or plantation grown. The only fibreglass used in her construction is in the sheathing of the footwell and seat rails, otherwise, all surfaces are coated with epoxy resin and a two-pack paint system.

Maiwar features 9 separate watertight compartments. Her wooden construction, as well as added foam flotation, make her unsinkable. Although traditional in nature, she is fitted with two AGM batteries and two solar panels. She is outfitted with handheld GPS, electric lighting, EPIRBs, tracker, satellite phone and an AIS transponder. Maiwar does not have a fixed screen or display on board. Her main navigation tools are a sextant and paper charts.

She carries three pairs of oars, two pairs are carbon fibre with timber handles, and the other pair are spruce, they are all identical in specifications except for weight. Water storage on board consists of 300 1 litre water bottles. She has a gimballed gas stove for cooking.