NARRATIVE of THE DOCUMENTARY FILM

The junk was built at Bei Tong a fishing village near Tianjin to demonstrate fishing culture and the craftsmanship of junk building to tourists. The government invested to build a junk which had extinct in the area for many years since 70’s. The project has to be completed before the tourist season in May. The name of the junk is Men Ding Zhi 门定子because the shape of the boat resemble Chinese silver ingot (ding zhi=ingot). As there was no drawing for construction, the performance and quality of the junk rely totally on the experience and craftsmanship of the shipwright. They invited a 80 year old Mr Zhao as the shipwright. They didn’t use drawing because no 2 boats are alike. The size of the boat depended on the amount of timber supplied by the client. A good builder will build the largest boat within the constrain of timber material. Mr Zhao had built 40-50 boats since the 50’s. His assistants are over 60 now. There are 3 major steps:1. hull construction, 2.grouting, 3.rigging. Mendingzhi have very low center of gravity therefore very safe. She is most suitable for shallow mud flat water in the region. The day of laying the keel is considered the birthday of the boat. The boat is like a family member. They lit firecracker and ate noodle to pray for longevity. The boat is 12.6m LOA, 4.4m width with 7 watertight compartments namely: 1.bow 蒙头舱(ropes) 2.water 水舱3.net 网舱4.elephant nose象鼻舱(ballast) 5.horse door马门舱(catch) 6.home家舱(cooking) 7.stern后bao舱. The 2 lower hull board are 5 cm thick the upper 3 boards gunwale are 8 cm thick. New timber with moisture are used for the curved part. The most critical part is to cut out the required plank from timber log respecting the wood grain. This will affect the strength of the plank. A god shipwright is judged by 1.economic use of material 2.boat stability 3.boat speed 4.firmness & durability of the boat. Happy Wood (Xi Mu)喜木is the topmost timber at the bow with coins embedded. Installation of Happy Wood signified the completion of the hull. Grouting is called Nian Chuan 艌船. The grout is made of lime, tung oil and jute fiber. The process include 1.oiling the wood 上油2.cutting slot 开缝3.apply grout 抹灰4.position jute 下麻5.hammer jute into slot 艌麻6.twisting jute 收麻7.final trimming jute 铲攒嚼活. In addition to waterproofing the gap, the grout actually function in binding the wood fibers together to make the hull more durable. The grouting worker is difficult to find nowadays. The youngest grouting worker is aged over 50. They sang a song to synchronize the hammering at the same time. There are different blunt and sharp chisel tools. FRP was applied to the bottom to increase durability. The main mast is 13m tall. 

Peter

Snatch their hands off! If the JRA don't want it we can flog it off this end for a large wedge!

Ahem! I mean, certainly, by all means...

Nice - they clearly had some traditional designs in it, as these modellers have discovered.

Only copy I can find is selling on Abebooks for £365.88 - bit steep for me!

Annie, I think we from the world of pointy bows tend to be sceptical to pram bows: All our life we have been programmed to like pointy bows as well as pointy rigs.  However, there are so much hard evidence that pram bows are good for sailboats, that it is time we try them. Just look at the tiny Optimist dinghies. They sail extremely well for their size. And look at the Puddle Duck Racers on the Youtube (when you have access to broadband). These are perfectly square boats, 8 by 4’, and with the only curve along the rockered bottom. I have seen them racing against elegant dinghies (taking hundreds of hours to build), and they leave these varnished jewels behind without mercy. The clue, I think, is that the flat-bottomed prams gain so much stability from their shape, so they can carry much bigger sail area. In addition, they seem to be efficient, dragging very little sternwaves behind them.

The Chinese junk in that TV program had the bow rounding up in an arc: About 2/3 of the bottom was planked with the planks running lengthwise (or whatever it is called), while the ends, even well below the waterline, were cross-planked.

As for slamming noise, I would not fear that when sailing, but rather at anchor. However, I think that problem could be addressed.

Hm, I guess I must finish the line drawing of Hull no.1, a 7 metre waterline pram at 2.4tons...

Cheers, Arne

PS: One thing is for sure  -  there is no way you can drive those buoyant bows under, downwind.

They certainly have blueprints here, but I guess it is with traditional Chinese craft as with Norwegian (and other ) traditional craft: They were initially built without plans, but later someone  had the lines measured and the lines drawn (as Howard Chapelle did in USA).

Anyway, I think we in the west have done a big blunder in disregarding the qualities of the Chinese hull lines and building methods, over several centuries. I have just started to teach myself to draw hulls, and to me the Chinese pram hulls (transoms in both ends) seems very attractive, both because they are easy to draw and build, but also that they have some fine sailing lines (seen from a fish's perspective). Imagine how all the stations along the whole waterline provides stability  -  which translates into sail carrying power and speed.

Arne