My Bushcraft Dream Come True!

[woodsorrel]

It has been my dream to build a tule boat. I've wanted to do it ever since I heard about the craft. Tule is a marshland plant that grows in many places in North America. The Ohlone, Coast Miwok, and Yokuts Peoples in California made beautiful boats (technically rafts) from the plant to hunt and fish. The idea of building a boat from grass (actually a bulrush and member of the sedge family) just blows my mind!

Finally, I joined a "boat build" and had the chance to help construct and paddle a tule boat.

Here's a section of the hull to give you a quick idea of the construction.

In just five hours the group built two tule boats to try out on Tomales Bay, California. Building and paddling the boats was the bushcraft highlight of the year for me!

If you are interested in construction details and seeing more pictures, here are links to my notes online.


Building a Tule Boat (Part 1)

Building a Tule Boat (Part 2)


I am so thankful I had the chance to do this. What has been your "bushcraft highlight" this year?


- Woodsorrel

 

[crosslandkelly]

Nicely done, a fine stable looking craft. Reminds me a lot of Thor Heyerdahls Ra1 and 2 Papyrus sailing ships.

 

[John Fenna]

Sweet - so very sweet!
A bit like the Egyptian Reed boats and "Ra"...

 

[woodsorrel]

Nicely done, a fine stable looking craft. Reminds me a lot of Thor Heyerdahls Ra1 and 2 Papyrus sailing ships.

View attachment 38623

This is a good question, crosslandkelly! It's been so long since I read his book, Kon-Tiki, that I don't remember what materials he used.

Before the boat build, I had no idea that tule boats were used outside California. But the teacher and several of the students had ridden in tule boats on Lake Titicaca. We also made another boat based on a design from Sardinia. So it wouldn't surprise me if you were right about Ra1.

- Woodsorrel

 

[woodsorrel]

Sweet - so very sweet!
A bit like the Egyptian Reed boats and "Ra"...

John Fenna, it was so much fun making and paddling this boat! Is there an analog material in the UK?

- Woodsorrel

 

[crosslandkelly]

Thor Heyerdahl based his designs for Ra's 1 and 2 on ancient Egyptian designs.

[video=youtube;JID--UJ7oMw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JID--UJ7oMw[/video] Sorry it's in German, but you get the idea. He also proved the the Egyptians could have crossed the Atlantic using them.

 

[Mesquite]

Excellent build WS, and what is obviously a great moment for you, thanks for sharing it with us

Thor Heyerdahl based his designs for Ra's 1 and 2 on ancient Egyptian designs.

He built 3 reed boats in total, the third being Tigris which he intended to use to show that Mesopotamia could have traded with what is now Pakistan and Western India. Sadly it was burnt in protest when the war between Ethiopia and Somalia stopped them from continuing any further.

[video=youtube;fDuXClOX02c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDuXClOX02c[/video]

 

[John Fenna]

John Fenna, it was so much fun making and paddling this boat! Is there an analog material in the UK?

- Woodsorrel

I once built a coracle using a tarp and reeds....

 

[forrestdweller]

This is a good question, crosslandkelly! It's been so long since I read his book, Kon-Tiki, that I don't remember what materials he used.

Before the boat build, I had no idea that tule boats were used outside California. But the teacher and several of the students had ridden in tule boats on Lake Titicaca. We also made another boat based on a design from Sardinia. So it wouldn't surprise me if you were right about Ra1.

- Woodsorrel

kon-tiki was a raft made from balsa, used to prove his theory of a cultural link between ancient peru and polynesia. ra I and ra II were made from papyrus [ but as the knowledge of making them was lost in egypt he used builders from lake chad and lake titicaca to help him], i cannot remember what tigris was made from....

 

[boatman]

Thanks for the post, refreshing to see traditional type boat on the water. Next a Tule house on similar principle

 

[hughlle1]

So when are you going to attempt a channel crossing in one of these?

Much like the birchbark canoe episode of Ray Mears, I love seeing people take the time to (hopefully enjoy) making a perfectly suitable craft without just buying some perfectly uniform commercially produced job from a catalog.

 

[rik_uk3]

My stepfather (silent key G5IW) talked to one of Heyerdahl's expeditions, not sure which one to be honest

 

[quietone]

Awesome effort, and then some. You have to be very pleased with yourself. How does it handle?

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

[woodsorrel]

Thanks for the post, refreshing to see traditional type boat on the water. Next a Tule house on similar principle

boatman, making a tule house is next on my list! I was inside one and it was very interesting. They don't have chimneys. Apparently, smoke from the central fire diffuses right through the roof, but the roof is watertight.

- Woodsorrel

 

[woodsorrel]

... Much like the birchbark canoe episode of Ray Mears, I love seeing people take the time to (hopefully enjoy) making a perfectly suitable craft without just buying some perfectly uniform commercially produced job from a catalog.

hughlle1, I'm with you. This experience has made me appreciate that Ray Mears' episode even more. I have a new respect for the application of bushcraft skills to build something - and the problem solving that is involved.

- Woodsorrel

 

[woodsorrel]

Awesome effort, and then some. You have to be very pleased with yourself. How does it handle?

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

quietone, I was surprised how buoyant it was. The leader/teacher of our group said that the boat we built could hold 3 adults (with wet behinds). I was able to spin it through 360 degrees with surprising ease. It did not set any speed records, but it was faster than I anticipated when paddled hard.

It was stable enough for me to lie back on and take a short nap. I tested this capability.

- Woodsorrel

 

[Robson Valley]

Kon-Tiki was balsa logs. All the more recent were modern boats made of reeds, all similar to the papyrus of Egypt. I have some papyrus paper, made in what is believed to be a traditional pounded out and macerated and laid fabric of plant fiber. I am impressed with how thin the sheets are. Don't know if these are rolled/calendared or not.
Simple reed boats are all over this planet. I don't believe that it's worth the risk to claim that B people learned from A people. They float. What else do you need to know?

 

[forrestdweller]

Kon-Tiki was balsa logs. All the more recent were modern boats made of reeds, all similar to the papyrus of Egypt. I have some papyrus paper, made in what is believed to be a traditional pounded out and macerated and laid fabric of plant fiber. I am impressed with how thin the sheets are. Don't know if these are rolled/calendared or not.
Simple reed boats are all over this planet. I don't believe that it's worth the risk to claim that B people learned from A people. They float. What else do you need to know?

i think thor heyerdals expeditions/theories were more about the fact that the boats could have served as a means of transportation between cultures [=to exchange new ideas/technologies] and that they were seaworthy vessels then about spreading the concept of the boats/ships itself....

 

[boatman]

Can't find them online but I have seen two photographs of European brushwood rafts. One was, I think, from Hungary and it showed a man on the pile of shaped brushwood sitting between wooden framed gunwales rowing the raft with conventional rowlocks and oars. The other was of a young boy paddling a simple raft.

 

[John Fenna]

boatman, making a tule house is next on my list! I was inside one and it was very interesting. They don't have chimneys. Apparently, smoke from the central fire diffuses right through the roof, but the roof is watertight.

- Woodsorrel

Iron Age Roundhouses in Britain had no chimneys or smoke holes either - smoke holes in the roof are a fire hazard in such circumstances!
The the smoke hole forces a draught which will take sparks up to the roofing material.
If there is no smoke hole or chimney the smoke forms an oxygen low layer which kills sparks before they reach the roof. The smoke also preserves the roofing and discourages vermin...