Boat Construction in Haiti

[Sailor's Brother]

Sailor (my brother) is down in Haiti helping out with the reconstruction. While commuting everyday from the ship to the orphanage, (they are building a couple of dormitories) he’s come across some enterprising shipwrights, who are currently building a fairly sizable boat down there.

To be clear here, he's not (that I know of) stopped to talk to them, and I'm sure he'll be long home before it's done, so anyone wanting to see finished pictures of the project, turn back now... for those enterprising souls who are curious enough to continue...

let's see if I can figure out posting pictures!!!

[Sailor's Brother]

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3451.jpg

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3450.jpg

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3449.jpg

[Sailor's Brother]

surely there's got to be an easier way to get the photo link off of Photobucket? anyway a few more

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3448.jpg

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3447.jpg

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3446.jpg

[Sailor's Brother]

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3445.jpg

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3444.jpg

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3443.jpg

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3442.jpg

[Sailor's Brother]

well that's all I have... perhaps Sailor will chime in with more information, but otherwise, the photo series is a little coitus interruptus as far as boat porn goes.

Don't know if they are still progressing or of the quake put a stop to it all... maybe sailor will get some more updates photos before he leaves for good...

[kulas44]

Very interesting, thanks.

[Hwyl]

Thank him from me for the work he is doing there.

[StevenBauer]

And me.

There probably is a better way. How are you doing it now?


Great pics, too.

Steven

[mackaye]

Great post. Thanks. I love seeing such a raw boat being built.

[Sailor's Brother]

And me.

There probably is a better way. How are you doing it now?


Great pics, too.

Steven

actually I noticed while cut and pasting that the photos in photobucket have sequential numbers, so I just kept pasting the same line and changing the last digit of the link... that way I didn't have to keep going back to photobucket. Is that clear?

[Sailor's Brother]

I've asked Sailor for more photos, and the next time he's ashore (he doesn't go ashore every day because they need to keep sailing all the times) he's going to try to get more photos...

He's still scanning the threads... even if his posting ability is limited (not a lot of bandwidth for leisure, sat time is fairly $$ even for a government!).

[goodbasil]

Great pictures. Love "hack-it-out" boatbuiilding.

[Sailor's Brother]

A related note from Sailor with some additional info/comments on the build. First I'll apologise, apparently my brother has no use for the "Enter" key nor paragraph distinction :-)

He also sent me some more pics of boats there. Which I will post when I get off this horrid firewalled from "heck" computer!

Sailor's email...

"Saw your posting of my pics on the WBF. To answer some of your questions. They've stopped construction for lack of funds (not surprising). The guy I spoke with for a few minutes said they'll take 10 guys ( the owners I assume) about 3 months to build her start to finish if funding was available. The structure was very similar to anything you'd see elswhere in that there were ribs built up of grown crooks and curved pieces. Floors are in evidence. Some sort of ribband seems to be wrapped around what might be diagonal #2 if she were drawn out. The transom is in place. Partly dried out as I could see a joint nearly a quarter of an inch thick in the planks. It would no doubt seal up when they caulk and launch her. All faying surfaces are roughly hewn. Other surfaces are left pretty much as is, bark removed on some, left on in other places. The keel to stem joint is bolted with galvanized (sort of) bolts. The ribs are built up as I said and held together with the biggest nails they could fine. Look to be about 4 inch galvanized common nails maybe 6 inch. They'll rust out pretty quickly. That's all they've got though. Most craft around seem to have the telltale rust streaks on the hull sides. Seams are paid with a form of pitch over an organic oakoum of sorts. Maybe coconut husk, not sure. The outer hull is painted gaudy colours for the most part and named something French and God related. "le bon Dieu" or something like that. Haitians practice a mix of Voodoo and Catholicism. One day when landing there was a baptism being performed in the water just off the beach we landed on. Paint jobs are vibrant with lots of tacky colours. There's even a dugout canoe pulled up near the vessel in frames. In the ribs there seems to be a chine of sort and no indication of any sort of chine log or knee type structure but that may just be that it's not yet installed. The keel isn't really perfectly straight. It's kind of wobbly from end to end but fairly square for most of the length. Protecting endgrain doesn't seem to be a priority and nor does neatness. Surprisingly, there are is apparentIy (spoke with someone who spoke with a boatbuilder, not my info so take it with a grain of salt) a boatbuilder's "coalition" of sorts. They build only two types of hulls here. Or more properly said they have two ways of building a hull. If an innovation comes along, all the boatbuilders on the island get together and discuss it to see if it's worth changing what they do. This particular hull will be powered by sail alone. It's a cargo carrying vessel. Rigs are built using barked poles. Rough cut to length and any cloth they can find IOT build a sail. Many are seen daily with torn sails and most all are a patchwork of different colours and materials. They're not fast, they're not pretty, they're not seaworthy as we know it but they do the job. They are building a vessel the size of a very large yacht, in 3 months with 10 workers, launching her (by hand, the community rallys) and operating her to feed themselves. Amazing really. Granted they have no regulations nor inspectors to make them redo something properly. It seems to work for them. We passed a capsized boat probably the size of an Ingrid, maybe a hair smaller, stove in between several ribs. Don't know how she came to be there but there were Haitians out there the next day in small dugout canoes we call kayaks on the bridge of #####(edited out Sailor's ship name). They were attempting to salvage her. Don't know how it went, haven't seen the boat or the workers since then. It's really quite amazing to see what they can craft from pretty much nothing in such short order with no power tools and very little in the way of hand tools. A few rough saws, probabyl an adze and a hammer. Mabye a wrench or two. Can't see any indication of any other tools being used. Probably a drill of some sort to make holes for the bolts but that's it. I'll see about adding to that when I can. If you have more questions they may prompt something from me. Just make sure Lord Ledger the master craftsman doesn't see these pics, he'll cry at the sight. Make sure the fool Tenner sees them though. He'll feel much better about his work. He has no reason not to feel good about it so why not boost his perception a little eh? For everyone else, let this serve as a prompt to let you know that you can craft a sizeable vessel with very little. The tools most of us have access to will make the picture prettier but as far as simple practicality… can't do much to improve on what they've done with the materials at hand."

[PeterSibley]

Thank, really great photos .It's interesting to see what our peers build when tools and money are scarce .Well done indeed !

[Sailor's Brother]

while it's too bad to hear (From Sailor) that construction on the larger boat is temporarily halted due to financing issues (I guess the Wall street meltdown is farther reaching than I had imagined!!!)

here are some working boat from the "hack it out" school of boat building (I do not use that term in a derogatory way... but to marvel at what they accomplish with such minimal tools)

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3469.jpg

http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/SailorsBrother/Hati%20boat%20building/IMG_3471.jpg

I just wish Sailor would have taken some better pics... that boat in the background here looks interesting :-) although it's probably a case of "good from afar, but far from good" :)