Perfect Panga Project

Hey Y'all

I just semi-retired and am ready to start on a project that I've been planning for sometime.

Pangas are hot. I'll bet each reader of this post knows at least one other person that would be willing to join in.

In my 35 years in business, I organized dozens of Collaborative development projects that involved the biggest players in industry. The cost-savings was tremendous when spread among 25 participants.

I want to organize a collaborative project to oversee the construction of mid-sized Pangas. The steps would be as follows:

1. Use the collective knowledge here to design it (classify it originally as "home-built")
2. Use ten thousand villages, or someone like them, to help find builders that would benefit
3. The participants from this forum, (or friends) would buy the initial boats
4. We hand the activity off to someone to continue on, pat our selfs on the backs for doing something good.
5. Drive off into the sunset in our Perfect Pangas.

The initial target would be to have the boat built for 1/4 (or better) of the current price in the marketplace. This cost would only apply to the original forum participants. When the project is finished and we all have our boats, we will sell off the new "company" and recoup our cost. I have done this successfully for more than 30 years. Everybody gains; we get the Perfect Panga for virtually free and some needy folks get a new boat building company. Trust me it works. Everything is "cards on the table" in regards to finance. We would use someone reputable like Ten Thousand Villages to see the activity through the phase of us all getting our boats delivered.

Sound like fun??

 

Gee...what is a Panga ?

a 100hp plastic centerconsole for florida or a wooden putput 5hp panga for Bangladesh ?

The panga type hull is so ubiquitous that it wouldnt be worth designing a Florida Panga.

The Bangladeshi Panga is already designed...free of charge , courtesy of the FAO

http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5649e/y5649e00.htm

 

They build pangas by the hundreds in Mexico, and they are very inexpensive. Some of them are sold in the US. I don't see a profit in this.

 

My thought was that it would be rewarding to be involved in a project that could help a group of people or even a small village. Building a boat would be something that an underprivileged group of people could do.

The hard part would be designing it. I've seen some very intellectual discussion on this site and assume that there are some folks here that could identify some refinements to the Panga design or some simplification of the construction practices.

The Panga type came to mind because of the simplicity, efficiency (gas mileage), good ride, versatility and popularity.

 

. Helping the small village implies development aid. The beauty of the FAO boat is that its designed to be built with local materials, by local boatbuilders for local fisherman. This is a very important development aid triangle. When the tsunami struck and destroyed all boats the only thing left standing were boatbuilders and fisherman.

Giving villagers boats never works..they sell them or corruption interferes. . Designing in materials that must be imported or in which no local skills are present never works.

Developing a boat for the American market is possible. Its a very competitive market. I dont know how many hulls it takes to justfy the tooling costs. Fit out labour is very expensive. Perhaps you could innovate and fill a Panga niche. Sell the bare hull complete with trailor to homebuilders who wish the customize,finish the product. It might be a buisness model.

 

The Panga is a refined design already. Minor modifications can be made, but they will be largely cosmetic. Bringing toxic chemicals to small villages doesn't seem like a lot of help. Particularly when they won't be able to afford the product they make or the medical care for the long term health issues.

 

I was thinking that the design changes would be focused on simplification so that the work could be performed by unskilled labor. My thought was that they (hulls only) would/could be sold into the US market since they seem to be getting so popular here. Seems to me that people that would buy Pangas would be true "boat lovers" and would not be afraid to finish them out themselves.

Ike, I was not thinking about this from a profit standpoint. Someone could probably make a little bit on commission selling them here. I suggested that we could find a group interested in buying the first ones so that there would be some available here for people to see.

Gonzo, you made a point about the chemicals that I had not considered. Do you think fiberglassing supplies and/or the fiberglassing process would be that much of a concern? I did it in high school shop class and no one seemed that concerned. Perhaps I'm missing your point here.

 

Is this to be a non-profit?

 

"Banana" boats, in the range 24 to 28 ft long with reasonable floatation/buoyancy built in, are imported from China - Originally a cheap "Yamaha"? design for Pacific Island countries... The imported price with a 40hp outboard is within the budget of local villagers - but the fuel (UnLeadedPetroleum) is a problem as it is very expensive, so many have adopted home made crab claw and other rigs by re-sewing cheap tarpaulins, for mobility... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5n_UV9IDTQ
Sailing canoe in the doldrums - - http://www.truenorthmark.com/photo/tufi-sailing-canoe/

A repair job on a pair of "banana boats" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Entrecasteaux_Islands Now that is a worthwhile place to spend your vacation - - - - doing THIS - http://www.cruise-aiders.com/BananaBoat.html

 

"Is this to be a non-profit?"....you mean like professionally built.....??????

 

I assume professionally built. By non-profit I mean a non-profit business under IRS rules.

 

...oh, I thought you meant Non profit like most boat builder do every day.......

 

Well, that too.

 

Yes Ike, non-profit.
Masalai, the boat would be exported to the US. Just the hull. The villagers would not be driving them, the idea is to get the people much needed money and teach them a trade. I've seen beautiful crafts in the Ten Thousand Villages stores that exhibit higher skill levels than needed to lay fiberglass. I'm not sure what else has to be done once the boat is pulled out of the mold but if necessary the final finishing could be done by the buyer here in the US. Leaving them in an "unfinished condition" would make shipping easier too since little scratches wouldn't be such a big deal. They could just stack a bunch of hulls together, band them up and off they go to the cargo ship.

What I was hoping to get from this forum was:
1) some ideas on how to simplify the production process
2) people to purchase the first bunch of boats and finish them out
3) show pictures of them on the forum and discuss the quality of the forum-designed hull
4) provide feedback on refinements
4) let other folks see the boats and give publicity to the "Perfect Panga Project"

What the forum would get in return:
1) the pride of helping people start a business
2) some nice boats

I just think it would be fantastic to give these folks an opportunity to build something like this boat that is so identifiable with them to begin with. It seems to me that boat hulls for several thousand dollars each would put a lot more food on their tables than the little wire-wrapped birds and other trinkets.

Am I over-simplifying the hull construction process? Isn't it a matter of laying fiberglass in the mold, put in some structure, lay some more fiberglass, wait to harden then pull it out of the mold and smooth the edges?

Kim

 

Remember that building glass boats is a toxic job. In the US, Europe.....boat builders follow strict health and safety regs to protect workers and the environment. Expensive, technical Construction methods like closed mold infusion and correct toxic waste disposal. . This would not happen in the Third world, you would encourage sweatshop conditions on a " not for profit " basis. Also remember that everything in a glass boat must be imported...