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It came to him when we visited the Louisiade Archipelago last cruising season. As we sailed from island to island Eric became more and more concerned by the islanders' apparent reliance on imported materials and ideas because they cannot be supported by their income and lifestyle.
Naturally, because his professional expertise is in boat building, he started by asking the islanders what their supply of timber was like for the building of their sailing canoes. But their supply of trees is diminishing, which is serious because their canoes are their lifeline to trade, go to market and take the sick to hospital.
In most places the islanders wanted to be shown how to build a trading boat to provide more efficiencies, i.e. safer, drier and relatively comfortable transport. Eric had noticed a resource that was already there and very under utilized. On the beaches lay several long narrow Asian styled outboard powered "Banana Boats" often donated by aid agencies. Many of these boats had holes worn through their hulls from being dragged over the coral. These could be easily fixed. Many more had broken down motors or had run out of fuel. The islanders have not been trained in using fibre-glass techniques for repairs and so cannot fix their boats.
Eric thought that if two of these banana boats could be widened and joined stern to stern, with a sailing rig and cabin added, an 11m Sharpie (flat bottom sailing boat) would be created. Such a boat would be much bigger, possibly safer and certainly far more versatile than sailing canoes. A modest outboard auxiliary would be desirable but by no means essential. So the reliance on mechanized, petrol consuming propulsion would be eliminated.
Materials would have to be imported from the mainland for such a project, but relevant to the size of the craft, these would be modest amounts. By salvaging the holed boats we could use resources, which were otherwise wasted, at the same time as giving the islanders an opportunity to learn new skills. They could then start a business in fixing fibreglass boats and become the island all other islands came to for this purpose. Eric began suggesting this idea to each island we visited. At Gigila Island the response was "We have two disused boats and we would like to do this". Eric and his wife Cathy enlisted the expertise of friends on SY "Caesura", Gina to assist with the generation of resources and Christian assisting with the rigging, sails and training.
Eric spoke at length to the head villagers to find out if the project would make a genuine and positive difference in their lives. He also asked their head man to write a letter requesting assistance from organizations that may be able to help financially. There are two men in particular who are keen to benefit from learning more skills and the whole community is enthusiastically behind the project. The islanders are excellent mariners, sailing for many miles in their large outrigger canoes and many of the men in the villages have good practical skills. Some have had trade training. Our aim is to teach them skills, which are very relevant to their lifestyle and will improve their quality of life.
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