Sailing raft with guaras (centreboards)
Balsa de vela con guaras (orzas de deriva)
- Date
- before 1526 · confidence medium
- Place
- Salango, Puerto López, Manabí, Ecuador
- Credited to
- Manteño traders
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Log raft with a cotton sail and vertical boards (guaras) inserted between the logs to steer and sail close to the wind. A vessel of this type was intercepted in 1526 with twenty men and a cargo of goods.
Described by Bartolomé Ruiz (1526). The use of guaras before contact is debated; their origin may be several centuries earlier.
What it led to
- maritime trade in Spondylus shell between Peru and Mexico
- offshore navigation in the eastern Pacific