 |
| My boat,
Kuan - "Thingamejig", "Whatsit",
is meant only for my leisure, unlike more workaday fishing boats,
although it often went out to sea to net rare shells. The GL fishing
boats usually have more upright sterns and prows than mine, which
was built just up the coast a bit, at Pilar. |
| Overall,
it is 29ft long, 25ft at the waterline. (I suppose I can claim to
have an eight-metre yacht). But it is only 30" (76cm) wide at the
middle, and narrows to a point at each end. The 'passenger
compartment' directly under the trapal - awning - is just 100" long,
giving just 20 sq.ft. So how do we fit 15+ passengers and crew on
board? Simple - they sit on any flat space they can find. |
At the stern, the boat has a tiny 8" pala - propellor - and a timon - rudder - about 6" x
8"
The makina - engine - is covered with greasy
rags for protection, but maybe it should be for
decency. |
The captain's seat above the makina has excellent viewing
facilities.
|
The passenger compartment has space for about 8 local
people (and me on the Admiral's Chair)
|
| Boat Design
It may have occurred to you,
as it often has to me, that this 'traditional' design has more than
a few drawbacks:
| From a Western Tourist's Viewpoint |
From a Fisherman's Viewpoint |
The propellor stands out from
the bottom of the boat, so it can coast over a rock that
neatly nips off the propellor
(Nobody has had the sense to
fit a 'skeg' - a bowed pair of metal bars that would skate
over rocks). |
? |
| There is absolutely no
protection from wave-splash where the passengers
sit |
The wave wash keeps the fish fresh |
| While it is stable and can meet
quite rough seas, once it's turned turtle it stays
there. |
? |
| The high sides make it difficult
to get back in after a swim. |
You're not fit. |
| Why doesn't anyone make a few
improvements? |
We've always done it that
way. | |
 The majority of local fishing boats are very
similar to mine; about 35-40ft long, fitted with two bamboo
outrigger booms - 4" katigs -
suspended on three pairs of J - shaped 2" palatigs of heat-shaped bamboo, tied
together and to the boat by nylon bindings.
The bamboos are carefully selected from the forest, and
are treated against bok-bok
(wood-boring beetles) by simply soaking them in seawater for a week
or so.
|
The hull
has a carved hardwood (usually red or white lawaan) base, the kasko. The hardwood side ribs are inset
on the kasko, and ½" marine
plywood panelling is bronze-nailed to these. The hull also has a
hardwood rim and stem and stern posts. All the nail holes,
cracks, and joints are caulked and sealed with marine
epoxy.
A good kasko is the
major cost in the hull, and second only to the engine as major
expense in the boat. Hand-carved and spoke-shaved from a single (and
now quite rare) straight hardwood (white lauan) trunk, they are
every bit as much works of art as Brancusi sculptures. They will
last almost as long, too; the wood is almost impervious to rot and
shipworm. But fresh water rots them - most local boat users
carefully keep their boats on shore, with the bunghole open for
drainage, and a good lamas -
bale-out - is essential after every rainstorm. I've noticed that,
where there is no beach, boats are hauled up onto a bamboo
raft. |
| The engine is a
14-16HP adapted petrol pump motor (hence pumpboat) usually made by Honda or
Briggs & Stratton, with a straight shaft drive to the small
pala - propellor. The engine is
placed just aft of the middle set of palatigs, underneath Captain Rhon's
swivelling chair. The small rudder is directly behind the propellor,
and is guided by a bamboo pole hooked over a thin steel
crank. |
Captain Rhon doesn't always sit
smugly in his swivel chair. It is he who has to dive to retrieve a
lost propellor, to pole us through mangrove swamps and shallow
reefs, bale out the boat, not forget the bugsay - paddle, and generally be a
responsible boat captain. |
 |
| A basic
boat like this would cost about P50 - 60,000 new, (about $1000)
complete with engine, shaft and propellor (about half the overall
cost). |
| Boat Building
- This boat was built over about a week, from a
prepared kasko, on a vacant lot
beside the shore. It is 45' long overall, on a 33½' kasko. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| First, the side ribs are added, and
the 2 inner frames |
Then plywood side panels - the
parka |
Cross bars to reinforce the palatig attachment points |
The hull is
complete |
 |
 |
| The gunwales - batiola - are smoothed |
And the prow - palayong - is sealed and
finished |
 |
|
| About the last things installed inside the hull are two
wedge-shaped blocks to mount the engine, and a nailed in block to
extend the cover for the tubo -
propellor shaft. But these appear to be such botched jobs that it
almost seems the boat craftsman loses heart when has to put in a
motor. |
 |
|
| The bamboo katigs are bound
tightly to prevent them from splitting in the sun while they are
'weathering' in, and the boat is painted and sealed inside and
out. |
 |
|
 |
Finally, the boat is taken off its cradle, painted on the
inside, and split bamboo flooring added. The basic boat is
done.
Two more kaskos are
nearly ready (rough-finished) for the next lot of boats, and in the
forest a stand of bayatakan bamboo
waits its fate as a few new sets of palatigs. |
| Before
modern materials, like nylon line, marine plywood and marine
epoxy, were available, more natural materials, available
locally, were used:
Side Panels: Amakan - split bamboo woven into
basket-pattern panels was used. It would be sealed with asphalt or a
natural gum from the balaw tree.
It is very probable that the side panels were tied, not nailed, to
the ribs.
Until he had a run-in with the locals, Dipo Richard up at
Burgos on Siargao Island, was pioneering the use of amakan panelling for modern surf boards. He
built his own house from bamboo, entirely tied together, and very
resistant to wind damage.
Nylon - Abaca, coconut and other twines would be used. Note
that the palatigs, that hold the
katig outriggers are tied for
flexibility, not nailed or firmly fixed in any other way.
|
| Larger Boats - Lancha |
 |
 |
| Larger boats are
built on Daku island, just on the
lagoon edge opposite GL, on the same basic principles, with a heavy
hardwood kasko (although more of a
keel in this case). This boat also has a wave deflector on the bow.
The palatigs and katigs are shaped from solid timber, but
bound for flexibility in the same way as for the smaller
boats. |
 |
 |
| The tumoy at the front end of this larger
boat's katig is shaped from the
main timber, but bound in the traditional way. On a smaller boat a
separate shaped plug is fitted to the end of the
bamboo. |
Which suggests
this tumoy I once found on a beach
isn't really the ancient Filipino phallic symbol I fondly
imagined. |
| Dugout Boats |
 |
|
These dugouts
(each carved from a single hardwood log), are still in use:
- Top left - a panajum -
canoe - used in the mangroves
- Top right - A much larger one as a cargo carrier in Dapa,
the main 'port' of the island. This must be a 60 footer.
- Bottom right - A salvaged hull, also in Dapa
|
|
|
When I showed these photos to a friend in GL, he told me that
the palatigs and katigs on the small canoe were 'new
style'. Until about 40 years ago, palatigs and katigs were not used on boats in GL, and
the only fishing was done in the lagoon*, from plain log boats. Then
Boholan people (from Bohol island, between Surigao and Cebu) settled
in Socorro, facing the open sea on Bucas Grande island, south of
Siargao, and introduced new open-sea fishing and boat-building
methods.
*"In those days, the losay -
seagrass - grew a metre high in the lagoon, and there weren't so
many people in GL. We had so many fish that sometimes you had to get
a carabao - buffalo- to haul them in" - Wilmar Melindo's
grandpa, fondly
recollected. |
Richard Parker -
Siargao Island - April 2005 (Last updated Monday, May 08, 2006)
I welcome comments
or corrections on my site and opinions, so please feel free to email me
at: richardparker01@yahoo.com
|
