Building a banca in the Philippines

While cruising on my motorbike through the mountains I would have never thought of stumbling upon a banca (boat, native vessel) builder. But I did. A quiet man, building a boat, with some help of friends. He had a bet going on over a case of Red Horse beer, that he could not finish before Holy Week. He lost. He did not finish before Holy Week. Although he finished pretty fast after that, so fast I missed out on the transport of the banca to the sea.

But I filmed a few times for you to see the progress on the building site.

The boat is mainly made of wood, and little nails are used, the finish is plywood, painted and sealed off. The wood that needed bending was placed between poles in the sand, that kept iit into the wished shape and the sun did the rest.

I must say I was impressed by the craftsmanship of these people. The fun part was that once it was known that we filmed there every now and then, more and more people gathered around the boat to watch, participate in the gossip and hang out, just in the hope to meet us.

Enjoy the videos!