|
|
| Boat Design Forums | Boat Design Directory | Boat Design Gallery | Boat Design Book Store | Thanks to Our Site Sponsors | Sitemap |
|
|
|||||
|
STAGE 2-JOB 2
|
VOLUME III
|
Page 65
|
|||
|
|
|||||
|
JOB 2 - THE ORIGINS OF THE SUPER-
STRUCTURE FRAMEWORK
The design of the combined mast and
wheelhouse structure owes its conception to experiences drawn from the spiny lobster fishing industry in Northeast Brazil. The time period this refers to was from 1959 to 1966 when the industry was in its early days.
Until 1959 almost all the Brazilian fisher-
men in this region were using catching methods and sailing craft which had remained virtually unchanged for centuries. But from 1959 to 1962 the advent of modern processing and exporting plants for lobster on this coast created a sudden and enormous demand for more efficient fish- ing vessels. Financing, boat-building materials, skills and equipment were hard to obtain in this region. Traditionally-built, local wooden sailing boats were imported from abroad and adapted to lobster fishing. The number of powered fishing craft grew, lobster was caught more efficiently, the numbers of sailing craft began to diminish. Inevitably, as the powered fleets expanded, catches of lobster per boat began to drop and a need to diversify the regional fish- ing came about.
In the late 1960's the first ferro-cement
fishing boats appeared in North America. Ferro-cement had long been proclaimed by Pro- fessor Nervi and his followers, pioneers in ferro- cement, as the ideal material for building fish- ing boats. Some of the reasons for this claim appeared to be particularly fitting in the context of Northeast Brazil at this stage of its develop- ment. Ferro-cement boats required relatively unskilled labor, at least in the construction of the hull. No sophisticated equipment was needed, the construction materials were common- place. That ferro-cement was not subject to deterioration and absolutely impervious to the attacks of the teredo worm was a factor which particularly favored its introduction to these tropical waters. |
|
||||
|
It can be argued that the techniques used
in the construction of ferro-cement boats owe more to the lessons learned in boatyards using steel than to those building in wood or fiber- glass. Steel was chosen for the combined mast and wheelhouse framework but this was not the principal reason. During the past forty years the basic equipment and skills employed in electric arc-welding have spread to almost every human settlement in the world big enough to support a gasoline pump. The underdeveloped Northeast of Brazil has arc-welding. It has had skills in wood-working for a longer time, but dimensional, finished lumber, plywood and marine fastenings are particularly hard to obtain. Common steel pipe, flat bar, plate and angle iron, the materials which comprise this super- structure frame are, on the other hand, rela- tively easy to find in the coastal towns. Above all, experience in the fitting out of fishing boats in this primitive region had shown that men who had acquired welding and mechanical skills in automotive repair could be more effectively employed for this work than the local builders of traditional sailing craft. And so the concept grew of a superstructure frame which would fulfill the following requirements: |
|||||
|
|
|||||