Tsunami: inter-island transportation & replacement boats

It's becoming clear that the recent Indian Ocean Tsunami has devastated Indonesia, Sri Lanka, & parts of other island and coastal areas. Boats will be required for transportation of relief supplies, and replacement boats will be required for those who depend on the sea for their livelihood.

Webmaster (Jeff): Let's set up a place to discuss how our on-line community can be involved in meeting this need, with clear re-directs to a master thread dedicated to this topic.

Here's one already begun: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?p=35938#post35938

Thanks, & Happy New Year!

 

Excellent idea - a new forum has been created.

 

Stephen, and Jeff,
Great idea.
I will watch (and participate) with interest.
Steve

 

Not to get political or anything, but...
This quote is from rec.boats.building, where a similar thread has emerged:

"The troops in iraq should be sent to help.. all of them.

hmmmm... should we try to help people who keep trying to blow us and thier
own people to bits?
Or should those resouces be sent where they will be wanted......?...
dont seem a difficult choice to me."

Seemed like a good idea - but PLEASE don't waste time arguing over it, it was just a passing thought.

Steve

 

You guys have set me to thinking about this situation. The whole thing is really heartbreaking. The death tolls and horrific stories we are hearing now, are only the begining of these peoples problems. They have no way to feed themselves. Many of the places hit rely on fishing for sustainance and many many of them have not even been contacted yet...what about the Maldives?!!! My wife knows this area well and traveled much of it by boat. She says there are still huge populations that no one has any touch with yet. It's just gut wrenching.

Now I know that out there amongst us are piles of surplus and never going to be used drums of resin, cloth, fillers, tools, rope, fishing gear and parts.

I just don't have clue how to find it, acquire it, and ship it.

You see what I am driving at here? Is it nuts to think any of it could end up over there and be put to use? Do you think any of us could put together some gear that would get them out feeding themselves again?

The other insane thing I can't get out my head is the thousands and thousands of unwanted 15 to 30 foot fiberglass boats laying around this country. Boats that would be of value to folks there. But how do you get them some boats immediately? How do you get them on track now? They need it today.

I mean you got to think that disease and poor living facilities is already just making life miserable, but some places have lost their ferries, their bridges and their access to everyhting life sustaining. People here do not relaize how much water transport plays into everyday life in some of those place. Like in the Maldives, they will perish without it!

Any ideas?

I have to do something if I can...but what?

 

DG,

I appreciate your sentiment; it's just the way I was feeling yesterday morning. Then I started searching for some information on what to do and how to do it.

Fishermen are fishermen everywhere, they are eternal optimists but very conservative about boats and gear. They have no use for your cast off Bayliners, don't want em and would hate them. As indicated in Stephen's thread, they are using small outboards that burn kerosene, something not even available in North America.

If you start looking at NGO disaster relief sites you will find many stories of well meaning people shipping tons of unwanted stuff to various disasters, only to create further problems. The NGO's ask for cash; contribute to one you believe is doing the work you are concerned about.

Fishing fleets and marine transport needs to be rebuilt, but that will be a long term project, and it's best if that work is done in-country. One group with a long-term commitment to this is FAO

Another group with a stated interest in rebuilding fishing fleets is CARE. They have lots of offices and hundreds of people already working in the area. They have been working in Indonesia since 1967 and understand the culture and requirements. By all means apply to them with your offer of help or expertise, but also send cash.

Tad

 

Tad
I just returned from breakfast and a long think about the subject and I know what you are saying is right.
I can't begin to assess and respond to their needs from here.


Just took this from the FOA site:
"The assessment missions currently under way will provide a better picture of the needs of hard-hit fishing communities, where the loss of boats and fishing gear mean loss of income and livelihoods, especially for poor fishing households who may not have adequate savings to replace their assets and who are unlikely to meet the immediate food needs of their families without assistance."

Howerver I was thinking about those people that live in the most remote areas. Those that do no live where there is enough infrastructure to make money worth anything to them. Who are not going to see relief goods, who do not have refrigeration and their sustainance is all "beach to belly".
I understand that their needs boatwise are peculiar to their area and personal choices and I had no thoughts on sending them any old Bayliners or trash. Hell I don't have any idea how to send them anything except money and good wishes.

I was just thinking of the miles of wasted product laying around here and lamenting the fact that it is here and not there along with some talent and some man hours of work.
I suppose that what is needed right now is airdropped food and water. But that can't sustain them for very long.

It might be that our Australian freinds might have a better handle on it and would be able to keep us informed if there were ways to help.

 

If someone wants to scan it and put it in Adobe, I have the NAVSEA ferrocement manuals developed in the 60's for Third World boatbuilding. Since they are US gov't pubs, they are copyright free. I don't have Adobe myself - leave me a mailing address.

Please also note Engineers Without Borders - an organization specifically developed to provide developmental engineering assistance to the Third World.

 

This web site has useful contact information for coordinating transportation of relief supplies free of charge to India: http://www.aidindia.org/CMS/index.p...id=39&Itemid=63

This is from today's New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/02/international/worldspecial4/02nations.html?oref=login for full text
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Egeland said the food and medical relief that was arriving in thousands of shipments was running into "logistical constraints" caused by overloaded airports and other bottlenecks. He gave a list of equipment needs drawn up in a telephone conference meeting on Friday with representatives of the United States-led core group of nations that also includes Australia, India and Japan.

Those needs included helicopters and ships able to carry them, air-traffic-control units, landing craft, trucks, cargo planes, base camps for the aid workers, fuel storage and water treatment units, generators and medical kits.

 

Donations to UNICEF and the Red Cross are the most important things that can be done right now. I think the NAVSEA documents may be helpful too, you can get a 30 trial from the ADOBE web site that will allow you to create .pdf files from the scaned docs. I do not know what else to say, it is so unbelivable, and so sad.

 

I'd also be happy to scan, ocr the text portions, and post as a PDF if you like.

Boat Design Net
Box 52
Beaver Island, MI 49782

 

Concerning the relief operation, I'd like to state what I believe to be true at this point (relying on press accounts):

1. The greatest crisis appears to be in NW Sumatra & islands off that coast.

2. Many bridges and coastal highways are out, isolating communities from access by land.

3. A major bottleneck seems to be getting supplies and equipment from ship to shore. Landing Craft have been specifically requested.

From this I speculate:

4. Small craft (large enough to carry payload but small enough to be beachable) are in short supply and could make a big difference.

5. Consulting my atlas, Singapore would appear to be a logical staging area for a civillian maritime effort (provisioning stations could be set up along the route to the theater of operations).

I'd like very much to hear from Singapore, as well as from our Australian friends and others with knowledge of this part of the world.

Stephen

 

Fishing Boat Construction: 3. Building a Ferrocement Fishing Boat

http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/v9468e/v9468e00.htm

for reference

 

The finer points of navigating it are elluding me, but this apperars to be an excellent SE Asian clearinghouse of information:
http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/

 

Post Tsunami Aid

Stephen, I received your reply and proposal this morning and I think it is a very good idea to go along the guidelines you discussed with Rajan.

It is the best way to avoid that unproven and unqualified designs are used for that area and other practical reasons might emphasize this.

I have mailed Klaus already if he would be prepared to confirm if he would be able to help us in this venture ( I am sure he will) but I have to wait for his reply; he received my mail just before he left for Pukhet.

I would like to make a few general remarks: emphasizing the value you and we can do to give all the help those fishery-communities require.

Fact is that the well care organisations have hyped up media into a massive broadcast, convincing the people to empty their spare cash.
However, nobody seems to realise that those organisations involved are not capable to give any sufficient economical supply - and - they have no intentions to do so.
The massive volume of cash donations, will in Holland only, exceed US$ 100 mil (100.000.000,=) that will go to 8 (!) non-profit organisations: parltly left wing political, medical health care, Red Cross, Terre des Hommes, Unicef, Churchesinaction etc.
Before all those funds are properly distributed, we are - say - a year from now.
Nobody seems to realise that those massive cash funds are attributed to the general cash flow of the before mentioned organisations without any proper
guarantee that those funds will indeed be used to help the ravaged Asian terriotories, in particular West-Sumatra, Atjeh and Sri Lanka.
It sounds cynical, but Cordaid, one of the healthcare organisations that will receive 15% of the net cashed revenues, has proudly announced that they had already distributed Euro 25.000,= (US$ 33.750,=)

Another critical sound: the Indonesian Government describes/ looks at Atjeh as a rebellious province/area.
If they will allow any substantial aid to this province is not clear yet. That there is some antagonism is shown by the fact that the well-care workers concentrate on Thailand where logistically spoken aid is easier to supply and execute than in the outer north of Sumatra.
However, we have to wait for the reply of Klaus Neven, he knows the overall situation best, since he is located there.

Another item to be closely observed might be that now such enormous, fantastic large amounts of cash money are available - in the eyes of the local authorities in those areas - that they certainly would like to profit also from the created circumstances. I have this seen happening in Africa.

Cordially
Brien Gilroy aka D' ARTOIS