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Jangadas from Wikipedia via Indigenous Boats

Many thanks to our friend Bob Holtzman over at Indigenous Boats for his nice posts on Brazilian Jangadas, traditional craft from Northeastern Brazil. I encourage you to read both: one and two. I am digging this blog - great substance here:

It is a sailing raft built of pueba logs, lashed and pegged together, and sporting a rig with quite a large mailsail and (from what I can tell from the book's photos), sometimes a tiny jib. The mast angles forward very sharply, and the boom angles upward at the stern, so that the mainsail takes the shape of an isosceles triangle resting on its apex. There's a surprisingly sophisticated 11-position mast step that allows the mast's angle to be changed by a considerable amount, no doubt shifting the amount of weather/lee helm, but otherwise, the jangada is about as simple as a craft can be. The jangadieros, or jangada fishermen, take these boats 30 miles offshore in search of market fish, with the logs awash the whole way. Steering is by way of an oar.

Many thanks, Indigenous Boats!

Location: Sao Luis, Brazil

My new client, Rare, who had a project I blogged about recently, has redone their web site and now includes, among many other nice features, some nice photos from its work supporting an ecotourism venture in Honduras. Such work is always exciting because it tends to be such a win-win-win-etc. proposition. One highlight of this story, in my mind, are pictures of tours in traditional dugout canoes they call pipantes. They are gorgeous boats - long and low and exquisitely carved. They seem tender as heck, but in the right hands... they clearly are not reserved for flat water. I love that this venture is incorporating traditional boats into its larger offering. Not only will this preserve the craft of building these boats boat it also introduces visitors to the great boating skills the people of the region must possess.

Check out La Ruta Moskitia for more info - this looks like another venture worth supporting.

Location: Cusuna, Honduras

We recently went over to The National Museum of the American Indian again (nice having the place so close) and in the big, main foyer, where recreations of native watercraft are on display, I found this boat, a miniature version of a reed boat used by the people who lived around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru hundreds of years ago. According my colleague from Bolivia, the area around the Lake, which sits at ~12,000 feet, is considered tundra. There are just dry grasses, some scrub, and only a few scattered trees (which I imagine are fairly gnarled and windblown). In other words, not much in the way of good boatbuilding material.