Amazonian public transport

Public transport in the amazon region is almost entirely done on the rivers, by more or less open runabouts. You can find hundreds of such bunches in Manaus, the capital of the State of Amazonas.

How did Arpex come together?

I recently got a very friendly message from Helmut, living in Greece. He made some questions about the origins of the design and plans of the Arpex boatbuilding project. To illustrate, I'll give a short summary:

All different boat-types from polinesia facinate me. They combine speed with elegance and effective use of material. And they achieve that with low tech. Which means low cost.

From early childhood I had the dream to design and build a boat. As I got more familiar with the polnesian boattypes, I thought that this would be an easy way to build something I could sail on. So I began digging deeper. My aim was to build a boat I could do small exploratory sailing trips with.

But I thought it would be too daring to start with a big boat. So, to get started and accquainted to boatbuilding, I sketched and finally built my canoe Arara - which you can see on the picture above - during carnival 2005.

It was thought to be a shunting proa at first. But complications with the development of rig and steering made me go the tacking outrigger route. And results were encouraging. The canoe was simple, cheap, fast and fun.

So, in 2005, I did the next step, and began drawing my first visions of a bigger boat, following the same principle. A tacking outrigger of about 30ft. all basic ideas were there. But I needed construction plans. I would need to hire a naval engineer to get them.

To tell the engineer exactly what I expected, I began detailing my first sketches in a Power Point presentation.

The engineer was hired. But still he didn't seem to get a grip on the idea. So, I sat and built a detailed scale model. I wanted to build a model anyway. But the idea was to build the model according to the plans that he would supply me with... That would have been much easyer.

Anyway,... I had fun building it, and it was very instructive. And the tests have encouraged me to actually start building.

The engineer finally managed to get something together which ressembled what I wanted. Even if a great many details were wrong or missing.

Which is why I have to adapt and develop many parts of the boat. This slows down the construction. But what can I do? There was no alternative.

Infectious

Alcantara - Maranhâo

Traditional workboats on the wharft, in Alcantara, Maranhão. The State of Maranhão has a rich workboat inheritage, with many sailing workboats still in use.

Interestingly, Alcantara is also one of the most favorable places on the globe to launch rockets into space. It is close to the equator. Brazil maintains a airbase with launching capabilities there. I was more interested in the boats, though.

Ipanema

Ipanema Beach in the 1950ies.

Poetry by Oscar Niemeyer

Here comes the translation of the poem by Niemeyer.

It is not the right angle that attracts me
Nor the straight line, hard and inflexible
created by men
What attracts me is the free and sensual curved line
The line I find in the mountains
of my country
in the course of its rivers
the waves of the sea
the clouds in the sky
in the body of the preferred woman
The whole universe is made of curves
The curved universe of Einstein

Quite imperfect translation, but you should get the idea.

To those who don't know Oscar Niemeyer, he is a great architect, who has drawn several famous public buildings in Brazil and all over the world. Like the Museum for Contemporary Art, MAC, in Niteroi (image above, from the internet). The building fits fantastically into the overwhelming scenery of the Guanabaray Bay, and the surrounding mountains of Niteroi and Rio de Janeiro. Note the Sugar Loaf in the distance, to the right of the Museum.

Hiking out on Aleguá

My brother has been honoured on this blog already. Now it is about time to honour my sister, Elisa. Well, I honour both with this picture. My brother is on the tiller, my sister is hiking out, on Aleguá.

Aleguá was my dad's boat. The boat I've collected my first sailing lessons on. We spent many summers sailing happily on it, in between the islands of Ilha Grande. The whole family of 5, together on the 23ft. Aleguá. Happy days.

Aleguá is still in our family - somehow. Lisa is about to bring it back to sailing condition. I hope she will.

The picture was taken a couple of years ago.

Poetry by Oscar Niemeyer

I'm not really a poetry afficionado. But this one appeals me and seems to curiously fit this blog.

It is a rainy day, a flue is hauting me, and, yes, you guess it already, I'm not going to visit the boatbuilding today.

Fazendas de vento - Wind Farms

Os esforços para aproveitar o potencial dos ventos oceânicos para a geração de energia elétrica vão ganhar em breve um novo aliado: a Nasa (agência espacial americana) está produzindo mapas globais a partir de imagens de satélite. Armazenadas há cerca de dez anos, as informações registradas pelo satélite QuickSCAT revelam as áreas dos oceanos onde os ventos podem produzir energia.

A pesquisa foi publicada esta semana na revista "Geophysical Research Letters". Segundo a agência especial, os novos mapas poderão ser usados para diversas atividades, entre elas o planejamento da localização de "fazendas de vento" em alto mar, onde a energia eólica poderia ser transformada em energia elétrica de forma pouco poluente e com um impacto menor se comparada à mesma produção em terra firme.

Artigo publicado no Globo.com

Indians

Quite a few indians in Brazil still live a "natural" life, as their ancestors did. Most of them live in the remote areas of the amazon bassin.

Brazilians have inherited a lot from them. Including the habit of not caring about wearing to many clothes.

Pico do Bico do Papagaio

Click on the image to get a better view into the rainforest.

One of the benefits of living in Rio de Janeiro is the great variety of options that this city offers to someone who likes to be outdoors. Whether you like sailing, surfing, kitesurfing, diving, swimming, paddling, rowing, hiking, climbing, birdwatching, girlwatching, powerdrinking, or… whatever… it’s all there, right next to you.

We have the biggest urban forest of the world right within our city limits. This weekend we took advantage of it, and made the hike up to the “Bico do Papagaio”. It is a trail which takes 60 minutes until you reach a peak of 950 meters altitude. It is situated right in the center of the Floresta da Tijuca National Park. The trail is well organized with signs, and a park ranger even takes you name and telephone and monitors your regress. Despite being very unlikely, every now and then someone gets lost in the park, and needs assistance.

The park is a great area of tropical rainforest. The generally easy hike offers you nice views of the forest and, during the steep parts of the final ascend you get splendid views over the forest, the sea and the city, which is spread all around it. The top is marked by a big rock with an overhang which gives it its characteristic looks, which resembles the head of a parrot – hence the name of the peak. The surrounding view form the top of the rock is worth all the effort.

With just a little bit of luck you get to see parrots, tucanos, a multitude of hummingbirds, big blue butterflies, monkeys and all other sorts of inhabitants of the forest. We were greeted by a group of 30 quatis, which resemble skunks. Except that they don’t stink… The pleasant Sunday was crowned with a revigorating acaí juice at the Leblon beach.

View from the top of the Pico do Bico do Papagaio. Gávea Mountain in the backdrop

Still moving, afterall

Yes, moving. Mostly sideways. The building of the lateral extrusions of the leepod and cockpit, which will also give the fixed points for the staybase, pose challenges in terms of construction, but also in terms of logistics. The space in the garage-workshop is confined, and was obstructed by tools and all sorts of material. We had to move the boathull to be able to build the hull extrusions.

I should have insited on having it sorted before construction. But in the heat of the moment, and avid to start building, we started with quite some stuff still hindering the construction. By now most things have been arranged, and the boat was shifted about 1 meter to the side, to the middle of the workshop, so that Luiz Feranndo can work around it and build the extrusions. Starting by the leepod.

We had a positive conversation on the weekend, and I am confident that we will move forwards in the next few weeks. And now I mean figuratively, not literally, because there is no room forwards...

My rather gloomy antecipations were not confirmed, and we will find ways to work together in a satisfactory way for all involved. I believe.

Probabely we will hire another hand, starting on monday. I can see that the next steps are quite difficult to do alone. Handling the glassfiber textile for lamination is tricky with only 2 hands.

So, let's see, and hope for the best. Im looking confidently into the future! First we will finish and glue on the missing hull panels which have already been cut.

Inside view

Still a few hull-panels missing...

I just wanna stay right here for a while...

Good arguments to move forwards wanted...

Picture from Christian Gaul.

Albatross takeoff and landing

I find that very inspirational. The first takeoffs and landings are quite clumsy.

But, have you ever seen an albatross soaring?

I have. The familiarity with the elements is fascinating.

Well, .... I hope to learn my lessons during my first efforts in boatbuilding. ;-)

Look at the stars

Looks very much like a pice of abstract Art. I whish I had done it...
But it is not. It is a telescope picture form a bright star in the Milky Way.

After such arid topics like Principal-agent problems, which are very much down-to-earth, nothing like a look back at the stars. A boatbuilding project needs both sides. Objective, down-to-earth, cartesian approach, and a bit of star-gazing, dreamer vision.

We will see if I have got both, and manage to get it done. If someone has a magic formula, I'd thank for some of it.

I have allways been interested in stars and have spent many night observing. I even got a powerfull mirror telescope, and have used it extensively. But it was during my South-East Pacific trip to Easter Island, that the observing of the movement of the stars, during night waches, really got me.

"Principal-agent" problem

The Arpex boatbuilding project is somewhat stalled at the moment. I have been indicating my worries on this blog lately, and ... well... now we're stalled. Under the circumstances that the project was experiencing this was inevitable. It is the old, old, "Principal-agent" problem. I studied the theory in University. Now the reality is smacking me in the face.

In this very case I'm the Principal. My boatbuilder is the agent. ... Usually I'm on the other side of the table...

To those not familiar with this problem, which is known well in economics theory, I have copied a short description below.

I knew I would find this problem at some point of the project. The best way to avoid it, is to find out what moves the agent, and find ways of supplying the agent with this motivation. From early on I have tried to find out what makes my boatbuilder tick. Money is allways the first candidate. But I found out that this is not entirely the case. Unfortunately, I have not yet found out what is. To make matters more difficult, it is possible that he thinks that it is money - but in reality it is not. That's the worst case scenario.

But, fact is, that we will have to discuss the matter to come out of the stall. And it shouldn't take too long. Because, like aviators know well; you might stall, but you need to get out of stall quickly. Because if you don't, you hit the bottom. And then your dead. Well, ... figuratively speaking. But bad enough for the project. And I'm not keen on letting this happen.

Principal-agent Problem

Whenever an individual (the principal) has another person (the agent) perform a service on her behalf and cannot fully observe the agent's actions, a ‘principal-agent problem’ arises. The underlying assumption is that the agent's interests may differ from those of the principal. In economics, the classical example is the potential conflict of interest between ownership and management, but any delegation of authority gives rise to this quandary.
(Text from "Answers.com")

In political science and economics, the principal-agent problem or agency dilemma treats the difficulties that arise under conditions of incomplete and asymmetric information when a principal hires an agent. Various mechanisms may be used to try to align the interests of the agent with those of the principal, such as piece rates/commissions, profit sharing, efficiency wages, performance measurement (including financial statements), the agent posting a bond, or fear of firing.
(from "Wikipedia")

Drivers licence?

Luckily there is no drivers licence required for canoes... Kids use them to go to school. I mean... only if there is a school, of course. At least in a distance which takes under 1 or 2 hours paddeling to get there.

Get a tow

Being towed for a while is also good fun. Me and my blue canoe on the Rio Negro.

Maybe the first "Tow-in-Stand-up-Paddle-Surf" ever to be practiced on the Rio Negro! Big board...

Today, I finally managed to finish the 5th image of the "Musgo" series...

Streaming

Heliconia Mobile - Heliconia with 6 Raindrops

This blog now has a radio station.

I've picked up a music streaming machine, from Finetunes. Check it out under http://finetune.com/.

Or else go here http://mashable.com/2008/07/09/streaming-music-sites/ for a whole list of streaming machines.

Thank's to the H2OH blog for the hint. I've listened to Craig's selection for a while, and thought it's now time to get my own one. It is a pleasure to go through various artist's discography and legally choose song from a rich selection of artists. But I warn you: It is also a frustrating and humbeling experience, since you're limited to 3 songs by artist in each playlist! At times a hard decision process is triggered. I've just made a playlist only with brazilian female voices. Phantastic! I'll put it up soon.

The decision process is a complex and immensly interesting human process.

Lonelyness

This is how the typical houses on the margins of the great rivers of the amazon bassin look like. This one is from a channel in the Anavilhanas Archipel, on the Rio Negro. Note that this is during high water season. At low water, this house has a pristine white beach in front of it. Exceptionally this one does not have an Acai field right next to it. Acai os one of the main items of the regional menu.

The Anavilhanas Archipel is the biggest sweet water archipel in the world, and a fascinating pool of species. One can observe plants, orchids, gigant trees, many birds. And it has one of the best peakock bass fishing grouds (http://www.treksafaris.com/FishingBrazil.asp) in the world.

And, since you ask, during high water it is not even worth putting a hook in the water, since the fish spread out into the forests for feeding on fruit and seeds.


Image from the internet: As you see, peacock bass shows only at low water... They are angry fighters...

Give a tow

When travelling on the rivers of Brazil, it is not uncommon to be asked for and give a tow. It is allways a nice opportunity to chat or maybe buy a fresh fish, vegetables, fresh Acai paste. But one needs to be carfull with the Acai. One doesn't know the quality of the water used on its fabrication.

The people are friendly and shy. They manage to approach the boat for the tow quite gracefully, by approaching transversally and making a sharp turn to come broadside, and hand the towline.

See more for Acai: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A7a%C3%AD

The picture above is actually from the Northeast of Brazil, from the Preguiça river, in Maranhão. But it could just as well be the Rio Negro.

Why on Earth?

The image is by Christian Gaul. The location is Birma.

Why on earth would a blog, dedicated to boatbuilding and the sea, post about Black Holes and the event horizont?

To me the relation seems quite clear; A boatbuilding project has many common characteristics comparable to black holes. For example: they attract all resources, money, material, and even time. Everything which happen to be to close around it. The force of attraction is so great, it attracts even thoughts.

The eventhorizont is allways very distant. Only through perseverance can you approach it eventually. But if you manage to cross it, and survive the experience, you get access to a whole new universe. All to your disposal, where the very laws of physics, which we all are subjected to here in this universe, might be differently composed. At least maybe. That's what they say.

Just an interesting perspective.

For all I know, in this universe, a boat need to attend to all laws that we know of; physics, mechanics, hydrodinamics, aerodynamics, fincancials, chimics, psychologics... well, the last one is not blessed with clear rules. But anyway...

We just need to muddle throught that to get the boat floating and sailing.

From an artists point of view I like the idea and the images and colorshemes. Looked pretty next to my "Musgo" painting images.

Kiribati Canoes

A nice video, whith plenty clear views of details of canoe construction in the Kiribati Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean. The canoe regatta over the lagoon must be a beautyfull spectacle.

I thank the owners of the video, which seem to be some sort of documentary from some TV station. There is a triangular, red, yellow and green sign in the lower left corner of the image.

Water and canoes

That's what boys grow up with in the Rio Negro region - water and canoes. It is allways a great pleasure to watch the kids jumping and playing around the river margins.

Take a good look at this picture, and see the boy flying from the treetop. I have no idea how he got there... But I was there. I took the picture.

Well, blogs need something radical to attract attention. There you have radical.

Black Holes

Castelinho 38 no Santa Teresa de Portas Abertas

These are the paintings on show at the Castelinho 38, in Santa Teresa. Readers who have followed this blog for a while might have seen images of them before. The works were produced between 2006 and 2007. Artistic production in 2008 has been little. It is the price to pay for the dedication to the boatbuilding project. Which, somehow is also experssion of my creative drive. Therfore I'm not too frustrated. Click on the images to get a better view.

The "Musgo" series is inspired by a confrontation of decay and corrosion with an explosion of life, germination and fecundation.

Paintings from the "Musgo" series:
120cm x 90cm - "Anterídeos Gametangios"
80cm x 60cm - "Anterídeos"
80cm x 60cm - "Protonema"

Oxidations from the "Pressão" (Pressure) series talk about the internal pressures, aging and isolation process. This series preceeded the "Musgo" series - which came to break free of the pressure.

It is a great pleasure to expose my modest artistic production. Having the opportunity to observe the reaction (or lack of reaction) of strangers to the works is very satisfying. And a great moment for an auto-critical review. Funny how a little nameplate under a painting makes a big difference...

Being in exposition together with other artists is also good, because it puts many things into a perspective.

I thank Stefano and the rest of the crew from the Castelinho for the dedication and for promoting this event with love and care.

Leepod definitions

Before starting the construction, I was well aware that there were no detailed instructions on how to actually build the leepod. The drawings contained no indications of structures to support the various loads, imposed by the mastbase, stay and shroud attachments. Actually the locations for the attachment were not cleary indicated anyway. I asked several times for indications. But, as many others, the question went unanswered by the professional hired to answer them.

This beeing so, I knew that several solutions would be developed "in the flesh", as "Jerry" - Jeremie Walker, from SouthernOutriggers/canoe manufacturers, put it once. For a long time I was hesitant on starting construction before having detailed drawings. Like advised to do by several experienced boatbuilders. But Jerry said it would be ok. That these solutions can be sculptured by an experienced craftsman.

Well, that's right. Just don't expect it to be easy. And I didn't expect it.

As antecipated it is difficult and takes time.

Obtaining the specific drawings was turning into an obstacle which could only be overcome by ignoring it. The cost for the new drawings was equivalent to the whole material cost. I would have to pay that, to, hopefully, get new, correct drawings. Not a good option, in my view.

So I started with an accepted risk. I tried just taking a deep breath and march on. To throw myself into the building adventure. And in the end, working on the development of the solutions is the whole fun of the project!

But today Luiz Fernando and I had good talks about the consgtruction of the structures. I need Luiz Fernando to understand exacty what I whant, where I want it, and how he should shape it, and where to put the structural elements. To support stay and shroud loads. These are constructions which will be shaped form Freijó wood, 6mm ply, glass fiber and epoxi resin.

Arpex - Hull extrusions taking shape

We, Luiz Fernado and I, are taking a breath form the construction and are working on the solutions for the hull extrusions that will make the leepod and the cockpit extrusion, which gives stiffnes to the aka-attachement.

Note the laminated keel, lying on the floor between Luiz Fernando and the camera.

I'll elaborate later.

Vernissage - Hoje - Today

Today is the opening of a small joint exhibition at the Castelinho 38. It happens during the "Santa Teresa de Portas Abertas" cultural weekend. The exhibit will stay for 3-4 weeks. I'm showing a couple of paintings from the "Musgo" and "Pressure" series.

Click on the image to see the details, and join if you feel like it.