Wooden small sail boat for Caribbean fishermen

Really good video, thanks, I live nearby one of the images on it, The boats used back then are "piraguas" with the latin sails, a friend from Margarita islands in Venezuela sent me a design on this, i am studying it,

 

You might like this:

 

That canoe is too small to go 20 NM but the video shows technicues how to set up and build something a little larger.

 

I spoke to some fishermen this morning, they dont go more than 3 NM and fish with Lines.
Marine Plywood used to be found in cartagena many years ago, now they dont do it, and importing would increase the cost.
The reality is that locally there a very few skilled boatbuilders for wooden boats, not many know the techniques and their sons only want to learn to work with fiberglass. However they still use and build many wodenboats with bad techniques and we see many casualties, the idea is to try to teach them techniques that make their boats safer ,create the interest to learn about boatbuilding and have some tasty red snappers along the way.

 

Suggestion: Encourage the brightest to build and supervise and delegate the less critical tasks to be done by others under their guidance.
Another suggestion: Develop a system of quality control also known as best demonstrated practices(BDP).

 

Thankyou, will do that

 

De nada.

 

As I said it's an economic problem. The only ones using wooden boats are the poorest ones who can not afford fiberglass. The people building them boats can not afford good wood or the time to build them right (even when they know how it should be done) because otherwise the boats get to expensive (to the point where fiberglass is cheaper). The young shipwrights realise the business model is not sustainable and are not interested.
You can improve safety by changing building techniques, but you can not break the economic cycle. You need something else to do that, for example sport. Regular regattas for wooden boats can attract new buyers, who put new money into the shipwrights pockets and make the business viable again. This saves the industry but it is a long way from making wooden boats more affordable for the poor.

As for the boat, one of the FAO outrigger canoes, chined, double diagonal, might do the trick. That's if the fishermen accept them.

 

SPC FAME Digital Library By Collection https://www.spc.int/DigitalLibrary/FAME/Collection/Plans

Here are the plans for the fao outrigger canoes

 

You should look at alternatives to highly skilled labor
http://cyberspaceandtime.com/QrexWy93YgU.video related
How to make a big boat made of plastic barrels - Buzz On Live https://buzzon.live/40169-how-to-make-a-big-boat-made-of-plastic-barrels/

 

This is if you have bamboo, buffalo dung and tree resin available: Woven Bamboo Basket Boats of Coastal Vietnam http://boatsandrice.org/wovenBamboo.html

 

I like the concept of the plastic barrel boats - but riveting / screwing the plastic sheets to the steel frames seem a bit dubious to me.
Even if they have bedding compound between the plastic and steel, I don't think the steel will last very long in salt water, no matter how well it is painted.

 

They are plastic barrels

 

Sailcargo Inc. in Costa Rica setup an education centre and an dedicated workshop for giving courses for wooden boatbuilding.
Most of the Fishermen taking part of the course could afford buying an finished boat. specially since working with fibre glass is banned or ristricted.
the boat they build was designed by the UN to be build with minimum tools and materials.



its also a prove of concept that it is doable reconnecting local people with traditional craft. but yeah currently its not doable sending some fishermen over to take part in the next course.
still you should get in touch with them about seting up a similar place reteaching boatbuilding. If the Fisherman are willing to go sustainable then they would also be willing to maintain them.
If you build a wooden boat you make sure that it lasts a life time and isnt an Lump of GFR that gets ditsched after a couple seasons. And the amount of money a fibreglass hull is cheaper on paper the equal amount that was saved goes into materials and tools for oh glörius sanding.

even in Germany there are not many places where you can do Woodenboat building so there is a multiple year waiting list on an open Spot as Apprentice in some Shipyards who focus mainly on wood.