Trainees get a closer feel of dhow
Captains give lessons on various parts of boat
By Arab Times Staff
KUWAIT CITY, July 20: The real spirit of pearl diving caught the fancy of the trainees as singing and dancing exploded full throttle Wednesday. The trainees are entering the final days of training before embarking on the Al Ghous Festival 2016 in Khairan.
It was quite a long day for the trainees as some dhows were taken into the sea and cleaned with sea water later in the day. This is a means of seasoning the boats for the voyage. On the penultimate day of the second week of Al Ghous Festival 2016, the trainees got a closer feel of the dhow and its various parts.
A 10-meter long teakwood mast was carried by the trainees on their shoulders into the workshop hall. The mast had an ancient feel, and had some cracks and deep grains like a relic from an undersea exploration.
One end of the mast was painted white, to tell the top from the bottom. The boys were then shown how the ropes are to be passed through a slot at the top end of the mast bearing a pulley. A miniature dhow was also used by Captains to teach trainees the various parts of the dhow.
Experience
The boys’ excursion into the sea at the end of the training program would be the apex of the time-travel experience, when they would be totally cut off from the hustle-bustle of the city and left to their own on an ancient craft floating under the mercy of wind and waves.
The day began with some running and stretches. Pushups and abs followed. And finally after the 50-meter swim the boys returned to the hall for breakfast. The healthful diet of unleavened bread and cheese was served by the boys, who are taking turns everyday of serving breakfast for the group.
When the discipline in the class seemed to ebb with jokes and laughter, captains were quick to interfere and bring order. Discipline is enforced with immediate effect.
Though currently the club also has motorized fiber glass boats, which were added to the fleet some years ago due to the voyage to Bahrain, the beauty of the season lies in the ancient dhows, and all the labor that goes into sailing them.
The hull of a Dhow is called Haikal and is constructed from teakwood, which is varnished and not painted. The part of the hull that is below the waterline is treated with lime to prevent barnacles and other growth. Seasoned teak was imported from India’s Malabar Coast for the construction of Dhows. Teak does not split, crack or shrink in sea water, and is highly resistant to decay, making it the favorite timber of shipwrights.
A normal Dhow is about 18-meters long and has a masthead and a boom. The mast is called Duqal and bowsprit is called Dastur. Every part of the Dhow is made of wood.
Dhows have a lateen sail, whose upper edge is slung to an obliquely slung yard which is hung high on the mast by a massive rope. It is also called a fore-and-aft sail. This sail allows the dhow to sail well with the wind abeam, which is 90 degrees to the direction of travel, and even passably well with the wind forward of the beam, at 50 to 60 degrees off the bow.
The Dhows are usually carvelbuilt, that is with their wooden hull planks laid edge to edge rather than overlapping like clapboards. The planks were stitched together using coir which was passed through holes drilled in the planks. However, later on iron nails were used for fastening the planks. Dhows have a flat bottom
to launch CS21 Story Time, held in two locations. We’ll be doing Story Time at the Yarmouk Culture Centre on set Wednesday afternoons for all the kids in the neighbourhood (and anyone else who wants to come). We’ll also have Story Time at Amricani Cultural Centre on set that allows it to ride ashore on the surf or be drawn up on the beach for maintenance.
Shipbuilders
The captain explained how in the days of the old, shipbuilders never used any plans or blueprints to construct the ships. “They made everything from a natural instinct and were able to build exactly as how they saw it in their minds.”
The boys listened attentively to the class and raised doubts once in a while. The classes had an easy atmosphere, and questions were encouraged. Students don’t have to wait till the teacher is done to raise questions, but are allowed to interrupt as and when they have a doubt. Accumulating doubts could be confusing, the captain said.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the workshop, boys were learning quite another skill, an extension of the previous day’s task of making rope loops to hold pulleys.
The loops they made the previous day were knitted into a piece of cloth, and the suspended pulleys were hemmed into the limbs of the loop by tying up the limbs with threads.
With the end of the classes on Wednesday, the boys hope for a weekend was just a day away when they can heave a sigh of relief for a two day weekend, beginning Friday.
Saturday afternoons. The schedule for both is shown below.
Of course, this means we need 32 volunteer readers. Will you be one of them? Ideally, the book will be read twice,
once with minimal interruptions, followed by a more interactive reading. The first reading is designed to help kids get comfortable listening to stories. The second reading, with questions and prompts like “what happens next?,” “what do you think she sounds like?,” and “why did he do that?,” promotes the development of critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills. Most important, we want both the kids and the reader to have fun.
It’s good for children to hear lots of different voices, so if you have an hour to spare one Saturday or Wednesday, please volunteer. You can email info@darmuseum.org.kw; mailto:info@darmuseum. org.kw and let us know when you can’t do it. You can also let me know if you have a favourite children’s book you want to read. If not, we have a pretty good selection you can choose from in the Reading Room.
On behalf of all the children who will enjoy Story Time, thanks for your support.