Setting Sail with Self-made Sampans

Photo courtesy of Luo Guo-dong

【◎Written by Naru ◎Translation by Lin Yu-ciao ◎Photos courtesy of Luo Guo-dong】

Siwan Wooden Boat（西灣海洋）, which promotes boat-building experiences, is based at the NSYSU Startup Quarter（中山大學貨櫃創業基地）, located on the campus of National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung. When explaining why he is motivated to promote self-built boats, founder Luo Guo-dong（羅國棟）begins by saying that, “during my time as a sociology department teaching assistant in the university, I came across an old photo of Cijin Island, taken by the U.S. military, and I noticed that the shape of the sampans in it was quite unique.”

Photo courtesy of Luo Guo-dong

After extensive research, Luo located Dong Ming-shan（董明山）, who was highly skilled in handcrafting wooden boats. Through NSYSU's Wooden Boat Experiment Workshop, part of the university's “Reconstruction of Marginalized Community Identity” project, Master Dong was invited to teach participants how to build a vessel from scratch. In 2016, they successfully recreated two large sampans of the type that had been missing for over 40 years. Each weighed more than two metric tons. Luo points out that, “Master Dong's boat-building technique is vastly different from what's taught in naval architecture schools. These masters mostly rely on simple boat diagrams and mnemonic phrases.” He adds: “Taiwan's custom-made yachts can rival those from Italy, thanks to the skills of master craftsmen. Many details cannot be replicated with molds.”

Photo courtesy of Luo Guo-dong

The experience of building one's own boat not only teaches individuals about shipbuilding principles, but it also ignites a spirit of maritime adventure within people, bringing them closer to the ocean, where they can enjoy the pleasures of the sea.

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