Technological Change and Modernisation in Design and Construction of Country Crafts Operating in Coastal and River Waters

Abstract

Traditional boat building is strongly backed by the basic knowledge of craftsmanship of local carpenters and the knowledge has been passed from father to son. Most of the traditional boats are built in temporary yards and sheds erected by the carpenters wherever they found suitable place for construction of a boat mostly close to banks of the river. There are no proper designs, no periodic surveys, rules and regulations were also inadequate for the traditional boats which are operating in coastal and river waters. Hence there are accidents due to one or more reasons as stated above. There is a need to focus on the design aspects combined with a detailed study to improve the design and construction of the traditional boats where the accidents can be minimized.

In this paper an attempt has been made to study the traditional boat building activities in India by examining the technical aspects of mechanized and non-mechanized country boats. Since country crafts have complex curved nature, obtaining the hull geometry is a difficult task, in order to overcome the difficulty Faro Focus 3D Laser Scanner is used to scan the existing hull forms, which is used to generate the data offsets, lines plan etc...In this paper two case studies has been presented the first one discusses about the mechanized and non-mechanized country crafts which are distributed into set wise, highlighting the best design among them. The second one highlights the conversion of material change from wood to steel focusing on stability aspects. Based on the case studies, existing hull form(s)of better characteristics has been selected and slightly modified to make the country crafts much more efficient.

Traditional boat building is strongly backed by the basic knowledge of craftsmanship of local carpenters and the knowledge has been passed from father to son. Most of the traditional boats are built in temporary yards and sheds erected by the carpenters wherever they found suitable place for construction of a boat mostly close to banks of the river. There are no proper designs, no periodic surveys, rules and regulations were also inadequate for the traditional boats which are operating in coastal and river waters. Hence there are accidents due to one or more reasons as stated above. There is a need to focus on the design aspects combined with a detailed study to improve the design and construction of the traditional boats where the accidents can be minimized.

In this paper an attempt has been made to study the traditional boat building activities in India by examining the technical aspects of mechanized and non-mechanized country boats. Since country crafts have complex curved nature, obtaining the hull geometry is a difficult task, in order to overcome the difficulty Faro Focus 3D Laser Scanner is used to scan the existing hull forms, which is used to generate the data offsets, lines plan etc...In this paper two case studies has been presented the first one discusses about the mechanized and non-mechanized country crafts which are distributed into set wise, highlighting the best design among them. The second one highlights the conversion of material change from wood to steel focusing on stability aspects. Based on the case studies, existing hull form(s)of better characteristics has been selected and slightly modified to make the country crafts much more efficient.