This rig, often called the crab claw, is an ingenious blend of clever engineering and powerful aerodynamics, that is ideally suited to the great voyaging canoes and their sailors. Not so fast. During a shunt, the heel of the yard is carried from one end of the canoe to another by a crewmember, while other crew alternately slack and tighten the fore and aft running rigging. More crew are needed for larger canoes, because of the increasing heft of the spars. It is an operation that requires skill, timing, and muscle, and if not performed properly, can lead to the canoe being caught aback.
Canoe sailing is an important part of island culture, and it is always done communally.
In contrast, sailing in the West has developed as a hobby and a sport, often with a single sailor or his family in control of the yacht. This has led to a proliferation of labor saving and power amplifying devices such as winches, block and tackle, roller furling, etc. To that end, proa sailors are on two distinct paths. One group is starting with the Oceanic rig and then making modifications designed to ease shunting for one or two crew, while the other group is starting with the already labor saving Western rigs, and adopting them to the peculiarities of the bilaterally asymmetric proa. Both groups have the same goal, though they are starting from opposite ends of the cultural rope.