Introduction
Brazil has the largest reserves of fresh water and one of the longest coastlines in Earth. The indigenous peoples still use nowadays the Ubá and the Casco. Since the 16th century boats were built with designs influenced by Portuguese and Azores people, Dutch, Spanish, French and North Americans. For example the Baleeira which is the whaler dory from Azores and Northeast USA. Also the African slaves brought and developed canoes as the Canoa Baiana.
The Brazilian Boats & Canoes site shows many of the typical craft boats and canoes built in Brazil and the local fauna, flora and typical food from its people. The texts are result of my personal research for typical boats and canoes and the timber used in the construction.
Native boat builders keep the wisdom to choose the trees and the timber for each boat. According to them, the influence of the moon in the wood is of great importance. The best wood is cut during the full moon or up to 3 days before the new moon. The timber is subject to cracking and insect attack if cut after the new moon, or through the first quarter until three days before the full moon . With the full moon, a greater amount of sap is stored in the body of wood, giving it a higher quality and less dry than those taken in another phase of the moon, when there is less amount of sap. The process is a physical factor of the moon with the tree liquids. The tree is cut in the forests and deployed to facilitate transport, and dragged sometimes in rivers or inlets and transported along with canoes strapped to them. The specific gravity of many of these woods is greater than water and not float. The timber maintains its good structural qualities depending on the tree placement. Those on top of the hills grow in drier lands, subject to the winds, growing highly resistant. They are usually shorter, have bulkier fibers and specific weight. Should be used for curves, fins, bow stem and other areas of strong resistance. Trees which grow in the lowlands, where moisture is more common are longer and thinner, as these grow in search of sun. Due to the wet soil, these trees are rich in sap and are good for the poles, bracelets, frames, and when it is necessary to bend the wood. After cutting the tree, the logs, boards and pieces are stored in yards, and sometimes are buried for years in the mud of the mangroves to maintain quality, preventing evaporation and dryness, protected by moisture and low temperature.
Here you can also find many posts about the fauna, flora and typical food. Thank you for visiting Brazilian Boats & Canoes which has no scientific purposes, it´s not complete and may have mistakes. Much of the info and photos were collected from the web and from books. If you wish please contact by email: jwaten@hotmail.com
