I failed to enter my message yesterday. I'll try again. Thirty or so
years ago the Constant Camber method of cold-molding boats was invented
by some multihull designers who were working for the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization and the World Bank to help Third-World
fishermen repatriate their boatbuilding, and do it with indigenous
materials mostly, and return to easily-propelled forms that might
relieve these fishermen from the need for imported motors and fuels. In
general, though the method is great for building certains families of
forms with any wood you can slash into veneers, and only the glues
needed to be imported, the projects in various parts of the world
generally faltered: fishermen didn't want to go back to oar and sail,
and corruption carried off the money. I don't know who builds in
Constant Camber now except a for an occasional big multihull. And
myself. I have built about 66 small CC rowing and sailing craft, canoe
bodied, and the method is marvelously efficient for such boats, cheaper
than making equivalent boats out of purchased flat plywood, and
resultes in light, strong, durable, low-maintenance boats, easily
driven. But to get to the important part of this note, it's just a
warning against trying to deflect the fishermen from their customary
boat types. It does seem to be one of the best places to put aid: into
restoring the fishing fleet; but I don't know why it can't be done real
fast with brute money and available boats that are much like the ones
we've all seen trashed by the wave. There must be many with this
impulse to help, and I have assumed that people much more knowledgeable
than I are on the scene already, bless them.