Boat Forum / Building / July 2007

Got Orson Wells' film "It's All True" on VHS from the public library.
Documents a trip by four fishermen along the coast of Brazil in 1941
on a sailing raft. Interesting shots of raft construction details and
under sail. I've seen drawings of the rafts which are steered by
altering the balance between two daggerboards, one forward, one aft,
stuck down between the logs. Interesting opportunity to see one up
close being sailed. They have two tripod things, one for the mast step
and one for tying off the main sheet. The raft is wet all the time.
Anything they want to keep dry is slung on the aft tripod, including a
small water barrel from which they drink with a staw. Very creative.