Photographer Matt Atkin visits the stilt village of Kota Kinabalu, Borneo

  

  

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.

More of Matt Atkin’s spectacular photos of Phillipines beach boats

Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines

Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines

Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines

Brother Matt Atkin has sent me more of his wonderful photos of the boats of the Phillipines. As usual, click on the large and small thumbnails for a much bigger image.

Click here to see a post including a small earlier selection of his shots from the Phillipines in which I drew attention to the close resemblance between these craft and the ones that Folkard drew in the mid-19th century. A reprint of Folkard’s classic book Sailing boats from around the world is available from Amazon.

Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines

Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines

Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines Matt Atkin's photos of the boats of the Phillipines

Build a sailing canoe for $15

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How to build the $15 canoe, 1876-style

The $15 figure is at 1876 prices, I’m sorry to say. In this excerpt from a Scientific American Supplement dated that year, Victorian-era writer Paddlefast provides offsets and the rest for a canoe with a simple hull that looks eminently buildable by  either clinker or strip-planking methods.

In our time, we’d build it with water-tight compartments fore and aft, but many details could easily remain the same. For example, clever details here including halliards that are led forward through a block to provide forestays, and the drawings include outriggers for rowing.

Thanks here go to Craig O’Donnell, proprieter of the always-intriguing Cheap Pages.

Follow this link for more on sailing canoes at intheboatshed.net.

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