Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
My brother Matt Atkin outs with his Fuji Finepix x100 camera to photograph the fishing boats of Panang, in Malaysia. I’d guess these boats were for trailing nets – but would they be floating nets, or trawls? And what about the elegant double-ender that looks so much like one of the boats Howard Irving Chappelle recorded?
 
 
 
 
Globe-trotting brother and photographer Matt Atkin has been on his holiday travels again, this time to Borneo, where he came across the extraordinary stilt-village community of  Kota Kinabalu.
Matt likes to use a miniature or small camera that he can carry easily, but insists that it should produce very high quality images. His current camera is a Fuji Finepix X100.
The photos themselves raise some interesting questions. If the sea around Borneo is sufficiently calm that this kind of near the water stilt living is practical (I wouldn’t want to try it off the coast of Kent!) why are the boats also on stilts? Could it be a precaution to prevent them being stolen?
And how do they get their boats up on those stakes? Presumably it’s all down to the tides, but if so, what’s the benefit of raising them on stilts for part of the time? And how big are the tides here anyway?
It’s interesting to see the use of outriggers made from bits of drainpipe. Home boat builders, please note.
Thanks for some amazing shots Matt! There will be more to come, of the local timber-built boats and of a fish market.
These long-tailed boats in the Phi-Phi Islands are of Thailand were photographed by my Far-East based brother Matthew Atkin a little while ago. Lovely work once again Matt – thanks!
The boats are interesting with their proud bows, canoe-like form and brightly coloured cloth charms – I bet they go well – and because they are the predominant local form of transport on islands with few motor vehicles. So here we have wood-built craft carrying people and goods by sea, and for me at least it’s a powerful reminder of a time in our own islands in the UK that we can only read about in the history books.
