Bancas III

I shouldn't be blogging this weekend: I should be on a week-long canoe trip on the West Branch of the Penobscot River. But a bad back forced cancellation of the trip, so instead, while I'm sitting around healing, here's the third of three posts on Philippine bancas, this one concentrating mostly on construction details. (Previous posts on bancas are here and here.) As always, click any image to magnify.

1. This deteriorating banca is clearly of "five-part" canoe construction: a dugout base upon which are attached single side strakes, and large bifurcated stempieces bow and stern to close in the raised sides.

2. This hull also appears to be built on a dugout base, but it's interesting that it is flat-bottomed. Also note the complex frame-piece that supports the raised sides and provides a mounting/lashing point for the outrigger boom. The lashings appear to be cheap synthetic material.

3. A hull under repair, with one side-piece removed, shows multiple combination frame-thwart assemblies and a stringer that appears to run along a joint between lower and upper side-strakes. Note how the frames bulge around the stringer.

4. Not a construction shot, this one shows a different hull configuration than we've seen before, with very high sides relative to length; a fairly sharp transition between the bottom and the stems; sizable decks fore and aft; and a distinct, well-protected cockpit defined by square-ended coamings all around. With its high freeboard and coamings, this style of hull is intended for use in rougher waters.

5. Massive, roughly-hewn side-strakes are tacked to the outer surfaces of a narrow dugout base. (In photo #1, in contrast, the side-strakes are flush with the upper edge of the dugout base.) The bottom ends of the outer stems are temporarily being held in place by lashings.

6. A trio of newly-built hulls of the deep, coaming-protected type shown in photo #4. The one on the right shows a stringer joining upper and lower strakes, and has a pointed front coaming made up of two pieces.

Photos courtesy of Capt. Rob Whitehurst; please do not re-use without permission.