Pirate Long Boat

Better and safer

PNG Requirements

The New Guinea government was looking for a boat with the following specification.

1. Safer

2. Carrying capacity

3. Economic

 

Safer

Many lives are being lost in boating fatalities due to the fact that no safety gear is carried on the boats in New     Guinea. Due to the design of the present boats they turn over and float up side down when swamped. The weight of the motors sinks the stern leaving only the up turned bow to cling to.

Caring Capacity

 Present cargo type longboats  can  carry a ton but are constantly over loaded and unstable. Causing many fatalities due to capsizing in a small swell.

Economy

Boats current in use require 40 house power minimum to operate with a one ton load at 8Kt.

Our boat design

Safety

The boat in this case is the main safety equipment.

When swamped will float up right and will accommodate it’s passengers and crew in side and will and can not turn over.

When it has been bailed dry it makes a very good row boat.

Extra support has been built in to the keel and floor giving greater  strength of normal boats.

 

Caring Capacity

The caring capacity is comfortably 3 ton.

Because of the low profile of the boat it is easier to load the boat with cargo by hand in  the water. This is to save back injuries.

Economy

It is a part displacement hull which will carry a load more efficiently that the present planning type hulls  in use to day.

Because of this part displacement type hull  it requires half the  horse power currently used. This is due to the fact that  it dose  not drag   water behind the hull. This is giving a cost saving of 50%.

The boat is set up with 4 stroke motors with power pack propellers giving more reliability and a saving  in running cost of 40% over two stroke outboards.

 

This is giving a 90% reduction in running costs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KOUVA

Local fisherman called on to design and build boat for PNG villagers

 

 

Retired local beach fisherman Keith Anderson has spent his time recently trying to make travel safer and easier for the 120,000 inhabitants of the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea.  Keith spent some months in the Gulf Province of PNG at the invitation of the government to teach netting techniques to the locals.

 

He was appalled to discover that the boats used by many of the locals are unstable when loaded, resulting in 16 deaths by drowning in the past year and eight this year.

 

Chris Haiveta, governor of the Gulf Province, was aware of Keith’s long experience with small boats in tricky waters and got in touch with him.  The two men shared ideas and Keith and Chris came up with a design based on boats that Keith has used off East Coast beaches for more than 50 years.

 

“There’s no roads, air transport is too expensive and these people have to fish and move everything and everybody by boat,”  Keith said this week.  “They’d stack 30 bags of fish or produce on the typical 23’ mass-produced ‘longboat’ design, head off and capsize.  The buoyancy is in the bottom, so once swamped, the motor pulls one end down.  The boat would only float bow up and then they couldn’t get a grip to get back in because of the smooth fibreglass so they’d just drown.”

 

Keith was commissioned by the Gulf Province government to do something about it, using his years of experience as a beach fisherman, mastering small net boats with heavy loads in fast-changing river and tidal conditions.  Working off a design he’s used for years, he designed a wider, high-buoyancy 22’ long boat with good inshore and sea-going characteristics, created a fibreglass mould and finished the first boat recently.

 

To make sure it would carry heavy loads and be stable he took it down to the Bellinger River and loaded it up to the equivalent of 100 bags of produce of a weight and size typically carried in the Gulf.

 

The new design worked perfectly.  It has broad rails on top of the gunwales so operators can walk around the outside of the boat and always have a handgrip if anyone falls off.  It has rowlocks and oars so that if the motor or motors fail, it can be rowed.  Emergency flotation is in the gunwales so if the boat is swamped it will still float upright and can be emptied rapidly if the two 20 horsepower four stroke outboards can be re-started.

 

Keith will be exporting the mould to PNG and with the assistance of the Gulf Province government, boats will be made there and sold to locals looking for a big safe workboat.  Keith will be going back to PNG with the mould to ensure that the boats are built correctly until locals can be fully trained.  News paper clipping from the Coffs Harbour Independent

 

 

Local fisherman Keith Anderson (at rear) with Chris Haiveta (Governor of the Gulf Province front), Francis Kaupa (Managing Director MRDC Ltd) and Keith’s brother Fred who helped build the prototype boat.  The finished example of the boat will soon be on it’s way to Kerema, capital of Gulf Province.