I have today been asked what happened to all the highly skilled men who built all the wooden fishing boats?
http://ckdboats.blogspot.com/2008/10/lowe-and-halversons-last-wooden-trawler.html
A good question and I note I got the yards name spelling wrong.
Roy
A few years ago there was a considerable amount of
restoration / rebuilding of wooden trawlers being carried on in Hout Bay
harbour by skilled craftsmen in this dying trade. Is that activity still alive?
There remain scores of wooden fishing craft in the Cape, so who re-planks and
repairs them? I used to enjoy watching those craftsmen (mostly Coloured folk)
building those trawlers at Louw & Halvorsen's boatyard in Table Bay. During
my naval architecture practical training I was privileged to have conducted
inclining tests on two of their newbuildings, one of which was 72 ft in length
and the largest then built. The owner was Mr. Johnny Eigelaar, head of a noted
fishing family of Veldrif. Have you ever handled an adze - used to shape solid
oak frames? The craftsmen could shape those big frames to within millimetres.
A good question and I note I got the yards name spelling wrong.
Roy
No comments:
Post a Comment