The traditional “jangada” raft is built with six logs of “piúba”, a high buoyancy and weather resistant wood. The mast is supported by a bench and is carved from a fine and resistant log of “tamanqueira” or “matamatar” wood, that can be attached to different bores carved on the foot of this bench. Close to the stern, one finds the steering bench, which has the role to support the crew. A casing between the logs, amidships, serves for the use of a daggerboard, which has adjustments in vertical position and longitudinal inclination. The triangular sail is cut from a cotton fabric and the cables are made of natural fibers. The grapnel anchor is made of a stone that is worked into a rectangular format and then embraced by wooden rods forming edges (for the claw), and the set is carefully tied by craft ropes. The raft crew can be between two to five people, depending on the size of the boat, that has the average size between 5 to 7 meters long and approximately 1.5 meters wide or a little more. The smallest boats are called “paquete” or “bote” and can be used only with the propulsion of the oar. The construction know-how of this group of craft boats is in extinction: although today there are colonies of fishermen which remained from the first communities that were settled in the Brazilian coast (notably on the Coast of the State of Ceara and Rio Grande do Norte), the traditional “jangada” is no longer built. The current rafts are made of industrial-
Yatch FAYD_06-10_RF_V1.indd 99
ized wood boards or using mechanized cutting instruments – the so-called “jangada de tábuas”. The “Saveiro” Sailing Boat Like the “jangada”, the “saveiro” also comes up from the maritime interchange of the Portuguese with the East, and has its origin from India and according with the Ukranian historian Lev Smarcevski, this type of boat would also have its millenary origin, from the ancient Egyptian and Chinese civilizations. The first builders of these sailing boats might have come from Goa, a Portuguese colony in India, after being trained in Portugal, where they incorporated Portuguese naval construction techniques. The “saveiro” served as the main means of transport to interconnect the capital of the initial period of colonization of that time, Salvador city, with the cities and villages which were spread along the ‘Todos os Santos’ Bay (‘Recôncavo Baiano’). Adapted to the region geographic and climate environment, the tradition in the construction of the “saveiros” was transferred from generation to generation, from the hull dimensions and proportions to the cutting of the sails, and has spread all along the coast of Bahia state.
99
niques relative to cutting of woods and extraction of rope fibers, specially the know-how of the fishermen from the Indian Ocean and from Mozambique coast, who used craft boats which were very similar to the Brazilian “jangada”. Little by little, this craft acquired its own characteristics, due to climate and cultural reasons.
A tool that was brought by the Hindu builders was the “graminho” (gauge), which is used until today by the remaining “saveiros” builders. With this tool they work the wood, which is abundantly found in the Atlantic Rainforest , it included “jataipeba”, “sucupira”, “conduru” (for the masts), “pau d’arco”, “massaranduba”, “piquí”, “pau’óleo”, “louro”, “camaçari”, “aderno” and “biriba” (for the caulking). The “saveiros” have resulted along the years into some sub-types such as the “vela de içar” type, the “rabo-de-peixe” (doubled bow), “perua”, “perné”, “pesqueiro” e “baleeira”. In its turn, the name “saveiro” is of Portuguese origin and was a Portuguese
10/6/10 8:12 PM