Wooden small sail boat for Caribbean fishermen

I kindly reach to the forum for ideas for the most efficient design for the following project:
I will build a small wooden boat with local fishermen community that can NOT afford fiberglass or the use of engines, the boat will be used in the Coastal caribbean waters for two persons and fishing gear.
It will be built by carvel planking and with materials that are economic and locally sourced.
Due to the economical uncertainties brought by COVID19 on this communities that depend on tourism, sustainable Fishing has become more important.
I welcome all ideas that can help this collaborative project.

 

Welcome.
How far off shore do you need to go? Will you be fishing with lines or nets? These factors determine your needs.

 

Your first visit should be to the FAO library, they have many designs available. Search | FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations http://www.fao.org/documents/en/

What type of boats are in use now, what type of fishing is envisioned, what do the fishermen trust?

 

If it were my quest, I would go research the local library and ask the local elders what they used 80 years ago before engines were common.

 

Screenshot from the video

 

One big problem with wooden sailboats today is the question of skill. Many communities fully transitioned to fiberglass pangas and the skills required to build and maintain wooden sailboats have been lost. Rebuilding that infrastructure takes time and money, you are basicly recreating an economy from scratch. It's not an easy thing to do, especially when we are talking about subsistence level stuff.

 

Mangle, have a look at this thread started a year ago by Stumble -
Design Competition https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/design-competition.62175/

He notes in his opening paragraph :
"Related to this one of the non-profits I have worked with (Sails for Sustenance) is planning out a design competition open to anyone who is interested. The concept is for an open fishing boat that be prepped in the US and then shipped economically to third world countries where fishermen are currently using primitive boats (dug out canoes and the like)."

After a month and 4 pages of contributions, I 'bumped' the thread back up again, in the hope that Stumble would give us an update, but he never did..

 

Those skills can be relearned.

 

To relearn the skills would take years, assuming they can find shipwrights to teach them. The best solution is to use the FAO designs instead of reinventing the wheel. Carvel construction requires skills and time that are not available. Plywood makes a lot more sense.

 

I googled "marine plywood Cartagena" and 2 suppliers appeared.
Cartagena Marine Suppliers, Serving Ports in Colombia - ShipServ https://www.shipserv.com/port/cartagena/CO-CTG

 

These people need boats. Florida has a problem with abandoned boats. Why not select some that can be made suitable and donate them. They get boats, Florida gets rid of some unwanted boats.

 

Exterior grade plywood is much cheaper and good enough. These are workboats not yachts.

 

It's not only the skills to build and maintain the boat, it's the entire ecosystem around wooden boats. Get the proper wood out of the forest, much of it compass timber wich is now discarded as firewood, then get or make adequate fasteners. Someone needs to produce oakum and seam compound or some other sort of caulking.
For a sailboat you need a sailmaker able to work with what the people can afford, and ideally a ropemaker/rigger. All this work needs to be paid, so the economy has to function, the fishermen has to make enough to be able to afford it. This is true even if he pays for the work with fish in a direct barter system and all the materials are scavenged or free from mother nature.

The FAO boats and methods are good because they are designed for existing local economies and you can choose and combine from many different places.
For example there is a double planked construction method that can be used for any boat designed for plywood because it was developed to replace plywood. The skill and needed material quality are far lower than what carvel needs, and it is cheaper than carvel or ply.

Arguably the ultimate in subsistence boatbuilding are the woven bamboo boats of Vietnam.

 

Hello, thanks, They dont go really far, no more than 20NM, and most of them go with fishing lines, and some with nets, I am going deeper to undersatnd more the needs.

 

I am researching on the FAO , thank, one of the main issues is to teach them safety , and there are some good documents on this.