view this book as just for the "racing boys". But as a confirmed "cruiser" I think it is vital that the master of his ship knows how to get the utmost out of his craft, because one day you will have to!
Book Review - Alone In The Caribbean (HowardJ)
The Cruise of the "Yakaboo" in the Lesser Antilles
By Frederic A Fenger
Published in the US by George H Doran Company in 1917
The Yakaboo was a unique craft in that it had no rudder. The rig was balanced and the boat steered via a movable (fore & aft) centreboard. What is remarkable about this voyage is that it was conducted in 1911. Heading north through what is now known as the Caribbean, long open crossings (some 40 miles+) were the norm (no helicopters to fish you out in those days!). Sadly details of the craft within the text are limited, but by the speeds he obtained and the conditions in which he regularly sailed, it must have been a capable vessel. The majority of the content is about the people he met en route, and though some of the words would not be "politically correct" by today's standards, it is still a worthwhile read.
The problem is that the book is very old and hard to come by. If you are interested you will have to search the second hand bookshops, or if you ask me nicely I will put you in contact with a US supplier, but at £20.00 a copy! I personally will still have to keep searching.
Where Canoes Are An Essential Of Everyday Life (Mark Smaalders)
From an article published in 'Wooden Boat' [see also...]
Sailing craft and skills survive most readily in the midst of a thriving culture. Papua New Guinea's remote Louisiade Archipelago is one such place. Hundreds of proas are central to its maritime culture, one that includes elaborate links with other islands, some several hundred miles away. Even without grasping their cultural role, I was awed by the canoes' grace, speed and sheer numbers when I visited the island. With their single, deep-V hull, stabilised with an outrigger, they are close-winded - particularly when loaded. The outriggers, always carried to windward, allow a sail area large enough to ensure good speed in light airs. Engines are unheard of.
Most of the archipelago's canoes are built on a single island: Panaeati. There, one literally stumbles over them. Completed boats lie in the shallows or rest on the beach; unfinished canoes sit in the shade of thatched boatsheds; and easily half the houses have logs and planks stashed underneath. Construction begins with a trip to the 'bush'. Using axes, builders fell two malauwi trees, one curved, the other straight. The curved tree is hollowed by axe and adze to form the keel log. The straight tree is split using an axe to produce planks that will later be fastened atop the keel log. This work is done in the bush to simplify transport to the builder's village, where the final shaping is done.
The islanders work with simple tools, but their craftsmanship is superb. When finished, the keel log forms a graceful, tapering arc with a rabbet along the top edges and intricate decorations at each end. The planks - some of which are 24" wide and 35' long - are smoothed with an adze, and occasionally a hand plane, to a remarkable finish. They look as though they had just emerged from a thickness planer, except that they taper beautifully from 1¼" thick amidships to ½" at the hood ends.
Work often halts when the keel log and planks have been moved from the bush, explaining why so many are stored under the raised houses. Typically, either time or money is in short supply. Canoe materials are cheap - five kina, or about $2.50 for each tree felled and a few kina for a handful of copper nails. But there are other costs. By tradition, a builder must show hospitality to helpers and guests. Money must be set aside on which to live whilst construction proceeds. And cash is needed to buy the plastic tarps or sheeting that have replaced traditional pandanus leaves as sail material.
In general, though, cultural traditions govern canoe construction and exchange. The terms vary with a canoe's size and the relationship of the builder to the 'buyer'. A 'five-arm' canoe, one that is five arm-spans long (about 30'), might cost a dozen pigs. Alternatively, it could constitute a bride price or secure a village house site. Canoes are traded outside the archipelago as well, traditionally within the 'Kula Ring', a complex trade and exchange system that involves a number of islands to the east of mainland Papua New Guinea.
But before a canoe can be traded, it must be finished. Having accumulated the necessary resources, the builder erects a boatshed and gathers the now well-seasoned keel log and planks. The keel log is hollowed to within several feet of each end, where the top of the log is flattened. Vertical end-boards, rather like a dory's tombstone transom, are erected about 2' from each end, between the flat and start of the hollow. These end boards are notched into the keel log and rabbeted to receive the planking. Their cambered tops are intricately carved, as are the projecting ends of the keel log.
Next, the builders erect paired natural-crook, L-shaped frames, whose bottom arms overlap inside
|