Traditional Boat Research Articles

Boat Race FUNAGURO: Tradition and Acculturation

Traditional boat races are held all over the world. They are popular in East Asia as well as South East Asia. Especially, southern China, Taiwan and the western areas and south east islands of Japan can be cited. Among them, Okinawa and Nagasaki are famous for boat races. The boat races there are termed as Hari and Pearon. Both of them are originally influenced by China, and have been held since much earlier times. The boat races whose ancestry is different from Hari and Peiron exist in Japan. Those boat races competed in traditional Japanese-style boats were once frequently carried out in the areas centering on western Japan. While paddles are used as a tool for propulsion in Hari and Peiron, ro is used in the traditional Japanese boat races. Ro was the most popular tool for propulsion in Japan. The areas where Japanese-style boat race was flourishing are in northern Kyushu. One of the areas is Tsushima Island that is located closest to the Korean Peninsula. In Tsushima, people have been familiar with the boat race, calling the boat race ‘Funagoro’. Boats were regarded as valuable as human's life in the island which is surrounded on all four sides by the sea. Boats were indispensable to people's lives. Up until the pre-war period, Tsushima's main industry was agriculture rather than fishery. Boats in Tsushima were used for agriculture. Therefore, they were larger than fishing boats in their size. The boat race was conducted using those boats. The boat race in Tsushima was held as a ritual and an event wishing for rain in draught. Characteristic of the race in Tsushima is that the attendants in the race were limited to the first boy, namely an heir, of native families of the island. Those families were labeled as ‘Honko’. As Tsushima is situated on a country's border, the boat race implied militaristic factors. Although the boat races had been frequently seen till around the thirtieth year of Showa era (1955), they gradually dwindled along with decrease of wooden boats. At present, the boat races remain in only several places of the island. They have been continued as an event of the summer festival.

Bateau Fait À La Main : Public Boat Building and Waterborne Tourism in Louisiana

A trend toward waterborne cultural and eco-tourism is developing in Louisiana. This article reports upon a project in 2003-2004 that produced a traditional boat for service as a touring vessel on the Bayou Vermilion, in the vicinity of Lafayette. The decision to build an authentic traditional boat for tours on the Bayou Vermilion was motivated, in part, by a desire to help conserve local folk traditions. From pirogues to oyster schooners, boats have long figured prominently in the lives of residents of coastal, wetland, and riverine Louisiana. As a folk craft based in wood carpentry, Louisiana boat building supported many commercial and recreational activities over the years, but wooden boat production declined during the second half of the twentieth century. Today, few artisans acquire the skills to master wooden boat construction; thus, a symbol of traditional Louisiana life is endangered.

Green threat to traditional boat building

Hallberg Rassy Varu is Sweden's second largest boat builder and the only one with its+ own GRP moulding shop. The company prides itself on its traditional methods for producing high quality yachts but proposed new environmental legislation could hit its business hard, Amanda Weaver reports from HR-Marinplast in Kungshamn.

Innovation in Traditional Boat Building in Indonesia: Theory and Practice

Traditional boats of Indonesia, usually called perahu or proa, cover an extremely wide range of sailing craft and date back centuries. The oldest known picture of an Indonesian ship can be seen, carved in stone, on a panel of the Borobudur, the famous eighth-century Buddhist temple in Central Java. This picture basically shows the same built-up hull rigged with tripod masts that can still be seen sailing today. Traditional boats of Indonesia, as they are built today, vary much in shape and size from a simple dug out canoe to large, motorized, cargo boats of over 500 tons of deadweight.

A goal programming evaluation of fisheries development plans for Sri Lanka's coastal fishing fleet, 1988–1991

Most fisheries planning targets of the Government of Sri Lanka have been underachieved. The ad hoc nature of selecting targets and resource allocations has been cited as a major reason for this underachievement. The primary reason given for the arbitrary selection of targets is the lack of survey research. Given this constraint, planners must analyze as many different alternative plans as possible and then choose the best one. In addition, goal comparisons often cannot be made using a common unit of measure, for example rupees (Rs.) allocated for subsidy versus hours of training for crew members. To assist planners in analyzing alternative plans, while accounting for sometimes conflicting objectives, goal programming was used to optimize the achievement of Sri Lanka's fisheries development targets for the planning period 1988–1991. The plan that most closely achieved planning targets favored a suspension of subsidy programs and the introduction of an 80% loan on boats and engines. The results also showed that a 20% subsidy on inboard and outboard boat hulls and engines, 20% on purchasing engines for non-mechanized traditional boats and 50% on the purchase of non-mechanized traditional boats met or exceeded planned targets.

Bowhead Whales and Alaskan Eskimos: a problem of survival

The hunt for Bowhead Whales Balaena mysticetus has for centuries been a tradition in the culture of coastal Alaskan Eskimos. Commercial hunting began in 1848, when the first American whaling vessel, under Captain Thomas Roys, worked northward through the Bering Strait and started pelagic whaling in the Arctic Ocean. This fishery ended about 1914, because of severe depletion of the stock. However, Eskimos continued to hunt the remaining whales, using traditional boats and skills augmented by methods and equipment acquired from Yankee whalers. They still carry on the hunt today, using essentially the same methods; the right of native Alaskans to hunt in this way is permitted by US domestic legislation relating to marine mammals and endangered species (Mitchell and Reeves 1980).

The use of vascular plants as traditional boat raw material by Yachai tribe in Mappi Regency

This research is executed aim to know the plant species and the way of exploiting permanent wood upon which traditional boat making by Yachai tribe in Mappi regency. The Method that used in this research is descriptive method with the structural semi interview technique and direct perception in field. Result of research indicate that the tribe Yachai exploit the plant species have permanent wood upon which traditional boat as much 26 species from 14 family. There are 8 wood species which is often used for the body of boat and also own the good quality according to Yachai tribe, that is Atam (Scihizomeria serrata Hochr), Batki (Adinandra forbesii Baker. F), Chomach (Gordoniapapuana Kobuski), Rupke (Tristania sp.), Bao (Dillenia papuana artelli), Top (Buchanania macrocarpa Laut), Mitbo (Cordia Dichtoma Forst.), and Yunun (Camnosperma brevipetiolata Volkens). While to part of oar exploit 2 wood species that is Bach (Buchanania Arborescens.Bi) and Tup (Litsea ampala Merr). Yachai Tribe recognized 3 boat model owning different size measure and function, that is Junun Ramchai, Junun Pochoi and Junun Toch.© 2005 Jurusan Biologi FMIPA UNS SurakartaKey words: vascular plants, traditional boat, Yachai tribe, Mappi Regency.

Effects of a Technological Change in an Aleutian Village

In Nikolski a community of 56 Aleuts on Umnak Island, the large wooden dory, introduced by Americans, has superseded the bidarky, traditional one-man skin boat. Social and economic changes accompanying this shift are described. A self-sufficient economy based on sea hunting, traditional skills, and cooperative effort is replaced by individual dependence on cash income from outside, often unreliable sources. The breakdown in family mores and disintegration of village life is stressed. The study is based on information gathered in summer 1952 when author lived at Nikolski with a party of anthropologists led by W.S. Laughlin, supported by Arctic Institute of North America and University of Oregon Graduate School.