They eschew blueprints on paper
In the world of modern boat building, even at the level of the fibre glass boat,  the vessels  are usually built to  carefully drawn out  plans. The design is on paper and there is no deviation from it.

Meet our local wooden boat builders.

The majority of them have never set eyes on a designer’s plan for the boats they build .

Yet they produce lovely, seaworthy boats as big  as sixty feet in length and towering.

How do they do it?

Mr. Frederick Phoenix, a veteran wooden boat builder,  last week  explained to this landlubber: “No need for pen and paper and drawings and designs. We get the order; the size; we build the boat. It’s about skills handed down by those who taught us. It’s all in our heads.”

At another level too, it’s about the skills and craftsmanship of Guyanese who are producing a steady supply of wooden boats to  keep the fishing industry vibrant and afloat, while keeping the traditions of fine wooden boat building alive.

The boat yard of Mr. Phoenix is located at Pouderoyen,  West Bank Demerara. He is just one example of the craftsmen who have dedicated their lives to this field where they start with a keel (a length of wood, 50 or 60 feet long, depending on the size of the vessel ) and end up with a beautiful and safe watercraft ready for work in any of Guyana’s rivers or even in the Atlantic, among the  islands of the Caribbean.

Phoenix explained some aspects of what amounts to the fascinating process of wooden boat building. .

Greenheart is the preferred wood.

They build the boat skeleton first.

First the keel then the bow.

Planking is applied over the skeleton, using nails, screws, or rivets to hold each plank in place.

Planks are fastened wherever they touch on the hull’s framework — at the stem, along the keel, at the stern, and to each frame — but not to each other.

When planking is complete, the hull is caulked, usually with cotton, which will act to seal the seams as the planks swell after the boat is launched.

By forcing each plank against its neighbor, caulking also helps make a boat’s structure more rigid.

Then they add the cabins and other interior sections.

Then they do the paint work.

Then the mechanics and the electricians take over , the former installing the inboard engine usually, a 235 HP, the latter installing the electrical system to provide power for radio and other equipment out at sea.

A finished sixty footer attracts a price of close to $6M.

A reliable technical source has identified the boats being built by Phoenix as Carvel planked boats, in which a smooth hull is formed by wooden planks attached to a frame.

The source said that the planks may be curved in cross section like barrel staves, and are generally caulked with oakum or cotton that is driven into the seams between the planks and covered with some waterproof substance.

The carvel planked boat takes its name from an archaic ship type and is believed to have originated in the Mediterranean.

The boat with smooth hulls and edge-fastened planks lives on.

At the  yard at Pouderoyen, Phoenix and a colleague were last week putting on the finishing touches to two large ones  which they hope to launch within three weeks.

Phoenix, in his late fifties, and of Good Hope, Essequibo, has been in the boat building business since the age of fifteen.

“As a little boy, I used to go on the beach at Good Hope and help the older shipbuilders.”

He did stuff such as helping them cut steel rods and pins for the ribs of the boats(now they use bolts and nuts.)

He recalls: “This was before they had chain saws. We used axes to cut out the frame and we had to rip the planks with a  hand-saw. Imagine ripping a fifty foot green heart plank with a handsaw. That was brutal. That was a bare back operation: no shirt.”

Nowadays, it takes about four and a half months to build a 60 foot wooden boat.

It took about eight months in the 1950s.

He recalled Jerry Cross of Good Hope Essequibo and Osborne Richards of somewhere in Berbice (both deceased) as two of the best wooden boat building craftsmen at the time he was learning the trade.

In the 1950s, filler was not available so they used cotton and oakum, a preparation of tarred fibre, to caulk the hulls.

The wooden boats are used in the fishing  industry, mainly for drift seine fishing, the seine being a  large fishing net that hangs vertically in the water by attaching weights along the bottom edge and floats along the top.

They are usually manned by a crew of six including the captain and an engineer.

Most of the boats that Phoenix have built are currently out in the Atlantic in the fishing grounds off the coast.

Phoenix said that the wooden boats have withstood the test of time.

“We have a lot of wood in Guyana. The wooden vessel is the best for the fishing industry. These boats have been around for years and they will be around for a long, long time.”

On completion of the two under construction, the owners would get the vessels registered and then put names on them.

Then they will launch them into the service in the fishing industry.

By that time, Phoenix and his colleagues will hopefully have commenced work on another vessel as the demand for the famous and dependable carvel planked watercraft remains heavy and may even grow. (END).