Critique about this boat design?

This is a traditional boat used around the coastal area in South Asia, especially in Bangladesh. I have traveled around the world and have seen a lot of inshore boats of different designs. But I don't understand how this boat is even practical in any kind of water.

 

Looks like a typical design for boats designed to launch and leave through surf.

 

Hi Titu, I'm no expert, but to me it looks ideal for pulling nets over the low freeboard sides, with the bow into very choppy shallow water; dodging a tropical rain storm under the 'cabin'; unloading at a beach where there are no wharfs or facilities or costs; and drying out safely while the catch goes to market. It may be a compromise of 'modern' engine in traditional hull material, and methods, but if it didn't work it wouldn't be used; fishermen don't want to waste their time or money. Maybe way back, they ran a junk rig, crab claw, lateen, or got poled along. It looks like bamboo along the gunnels, to take net wear, which is easily replaceable; and the rudder's nearly done a 180. It probably feeds many families, and has no safety equipment. It looks OK for a working boat I think.

 

You are from Nova Scotia, are you saying you see no similarities to this and a Dory?

A French lady (if i recall) sailed a similar boat from India to France, made from epoxy coated hessian/flax.

What is not practical about it?

 

The hull shape is very close to the drift boats used on the Pacific Northwest rivers to fish for salmon and trout. Flat bottom with tapered entry and exit.
Normally powered by oars, they can have a motor well a 1/4 of the way up.
They exhibit extremely low drag. I built a rather heavy one out of aluminum 14 feet and in low current conditions could pull upstream with oars with 4 people on board,
In mild standing wave troughs the hull would could just settle in and with small oar corrections the boat would stay in the trough without any upstream work.
The main reason is due to the pressure recovery from the midship back.

Fast to turn, stable in large waves when perpendicular to them. With the rudder they would exhibit better directional stability.

Extremely easy to build, basically 3 developable surfaces. The curved sections do not require much in the way of internal stringers for stiffening.


A great video

 

Looks to me like a sampan. Basically, it has two sprung sides and a flat bottom, like a sharpie, but has a bow transom, like a scow. The bow transom often comes to a point at the bottom, in a sampan, and is less than half the beam of the boat wide at the top. It is also usually raked forward quite a bit. Since only the side view is shown, we can't tell if it is that or an Asian interpretation of a sharpie.

With the rather extreme rake at both ends, I think it's safe to assume it's a sampan.

The raked bow is likely there to avoid having the bow transom slam into waves. it also provides a great deal of buoyancy up front, something one would shurely want in an open boat that might have to contend with a surf.

It is probably a lot more seaworthy than it looks.