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Fuel prices have increased to unacceptable levels all over the world with crippling effect to the profit margins of even the biggest fishing companies. With the developing nations, especially Africa, being the worst off in access to financing for economic, product quality fishing solutions and job creation to combat poverty and to develop economic competency.

A South African boat and sailing vessel designer – builder, Robert Schaafsma, knew way back in the early 1970’s that oil prices would cause financial chaos to the fishing industries and all fishermen and therefore built boats and vessels to overcome this threat and poverty to previously disadvantaged, poor South Africans.

His solutions to contributing problems can be summarised as follows:

1. Reduce or eliminate diesel or petrol consumption by:

1.1 Design low maintenance hulls that move easily and swiftly with sufficient carrying capacity for full loads, equipment and crew for fishing trips, therefore using less or no fuel even with full loads.

1.2 Design sails and rigging specifically for ease of operation, low cost maintenance and accommodating fish handing and processing on board while the wind provides free energy using no fuel. Sail power is only often used most of the time at sea.

1.3 Design engine lay-outs for 2 or 3 diesel engines on a common gearbox – one more

1.3.1 The less powerful engine (low fuel consumption) is used in fair weather and whenever low cruising speeds are required or in docking.

1.3.2 The more powerful engine is used when high speeds or power is required in bad weather or sea conditions while the smaller engine is not used and is using no fuel.

1.3.3 Note that it is not necessary to use any of the engines when the wind is strong enough to be efficiently used for sailing therefore using no fuel or engine, gearbox etc wear and tear.

1.3.4 In towing, trawling or stormy conditions both engines are used to provide power to ride out the storm.

1.3.5 Down-wind in a storm or cross-winds only the small engine or big engine or none at all under sail can be used by skippers choice.

1.3.6 The small engine plus sail-power or the big engine plus sail-power or both engines plus sail-power can be used for even better fuel economy and higher speeds.

1.3.7 The small engine can be used to start the bigger one or vice versa when electronic starter or battery power fails on one engine – the small one may optionally be crank or fly-wheel started manually.

1.3.8 Special transmission design between the 2 engines and the gearbox input shaft allows one engine to run only while the other one is not working and the power take-off shaft frees automatically.

1.3.9 Each engine can optionally have an extreme variable speed design transmission to the common gearbox input shaft.

1.3.10 Both engines can optionally drive the gearbox while the variable speed drive is on the gearbox output shaft to the propeller shaft.

1.3.11 This variable speed drive allows control of propeller speeds faster or slower as with a multiple gear-shift ratio’s on land vehicles, but through all ratio’s, smoothly and instantly without disengaging the “clutch”, clutch wear or engine strain peaks.

1.3.12 More importantly the variable speed design allows the engine to be operated at a constant best-choice optimum engine speed at low revolution (less fuel and wear and tear) in the “high gear ratio’s” when higher cruising speed in fair weather/seas are required from both or any one of the engines. When more power is required, lower ratio’s can be moved into without changing engine revs until engine strain indicates need for higher rev throttle use.

1.3.13 This compensates largely for the need of a variable speed propeller and fixed lower – pitch propellers for more thrust-power and less cavitation can be fitted to cope in storms or high-thrust etc, demands because of the multiple choice, single or twin engine, high or low maximum ratio ranges of the variable speed drive options.

1.3.14 The propeller design and low propeller-drag, no engine/fuel-power sailing-mode option is designed into the stern-propeller design as for maximum boat thrust-power.

1.3.15 Many two-engined power proportions can be visualised but for ease of explanation if, say we need 300 horsepower one can use one 100 horsepower engine and one 200 horsepower engine. Use 100 horsepower or 200 horsepower or 100 horsepower + 200 horsepower = 300 horsepower outputs on a boat requiring 300 horsepower maximum. Don’t forget the optional addition of sail-power!

1.3.16 An extra engine can save a vessel and lives when one engine breaks down in dangerous situations – and then there are the sails also!

1.3.17 If each engine has its own diesel tank then running out of fuel on one engine means bleeding and priming only one engine (-a lengthy exercise when a boat drifts to

destruction) while the other one moves the boat away from danger.

1.3.18 One or both engines (via the common drive transmission) can be used individually to drive generators for electricity and water heating needs equipment etc.

Small boats like pirogues, and slow ones like dhows, Chinese junks etc, have been used for centuries for fishing under sail power only, also around African coasts. Pirogues have serious safety, capacity, power shortfalls requiring daily fishing trips over limited distances short of deep water fishing grounds with no means of preserving best quality of the catches resulting in much more time spent in cruising against the elements between port and fishing grounds/shoals than fishing in daylight hours. Dhows and junks are slow under sail and has high drag under load or bad weather/seas with no chilling of freezing of catches either.

In both cases poor quality and small fish landings results which cannot compete with high quality, good profit margins of more sophisticated handling, preservation and marketing methods of the first world. Worse so poor African and other fishermen opted for outboard engine power which uses up more “petrol money” than poor catches can sell for and then runs at a loss they cannot afford.

2.1 “Mother –ship” design to ship-in smaller sailing – rowing – diesel-engined fishing boats on board to take a number of smaller vessels to the fishing grounds where they can fish for days on end while the mother-ship sails lazily between them to load up their full catches so that they can carry on fishing into the emptied small boats.

2.2 The mother-vessel can be equipped with long-line and other fishing gear to fish in slow transit to fetch fish from the smaller vessels or it can drift or lie on anchor to fish if the smaller vessels are concentrated close enough to off-load their catches to the mother vessel. So all vessels are maximally occupied in actual fishing night and day.

2.1 “Mother –ship” design to ship-in smaller sailing – rowing – diesel-engined fishing boats on board to take a number of smaller vessels to the fishing grounds where they can fish for days on end while the mother-ship sails lazily between them to load up their full catches so that they can carry on fishing into the emptied small boats.

2.2 The mother-vessel can be equipped with long-line and other fishing gear to fish in slow transit to fetch fish from the smaller vessels or it can drift or lie on anchor to fish if the smaller vessels are concentrated close enough to off-load their catches to the mother vessel. So all vessels are maximally occupied in actual fishing night and day.

2.3 The mother vessel has fish working apparatus for heading, gutting and filleting to reduce the fish bulk to high value sea-fresh fillets for quick compact , chilled or frozen storage while guts, heads and other offal is discarded as fish lures or bait or stored separately as animal food or fertilizer sold on landing.

2.4 The mother vessel design incorporates sleeping quarters for her own and the small vessels crew who all participate in all duties on board including processing the last catches of the day quickly before retiring. This also means 3-shift work teams for 24 hour day fishing and processing.

2.5 The mother vessel can also discharge full loads in close ports to return immediately with provisions to the small boats still actively fishing nearby.

2.6 Containers or self-contained freezer containers can be accommodated on the carrier deck also as processing storage blast-freezers to eliminate special freezing rooms built in and also make discharge and loading instant options by swapping such units on quay without labour to handle cartons. Cartons can be supplied in folded formin the empty freezercontainers going aboard. This cuts out a lot of down-time in port.

2.7 The mother vessel can be equipped for prawn trawling and freezing high value products.

• The multiple engines are all situated right up in the bow of the vessel under the floor of the wheel-house, so that the skipper can immediately hear or see if a problem arises with the engines and can immediately rectify it. A complete mechanical shop is also located in the bow so that all maintenance for the “Super 5 wonder Boats” can also be serviced and repaired on-board.

• The blast freezer unit can stand on the deck and all the holding cold storage will be located under the deck floor in ± 2 ton separate cold storage bins.

THE AFRICAN RENNAISONSE IN FISHING AND TOURISIM
Schaafsma’s 25 Meter Deep Sea Sailing Mother ship
This ship is especially designed for Africa. It can be used for the following:
1. Fishing
2. Cargo Transportation
3. Long distance coastal control and research
4. Tourism
5. Aid and relief
6. As a mobile educational and training centre along the entire coast line.

No1. FISHING
My observation along the Mozambique coast line in August 2007 by Rob Schaafsma.
I spent some time in different lodges along the coast and observed the following:
There are very many people living in small groups of kraals all along the coast that rely on the
sea for their food. When the tide goes out (and especially at spring tide) the woman and children
walk out to all the accessable sand banks or rocky outcrops to scoop off Limped or any of the shell
fish they can find. The men swim out with nets to try to surround a school of fish and drag it out on
the shore. Other men have primitive diving gear and spear guns to try to shoot a fish or two. In all
my observations I noticed that the women had managed to secure some food, very little though,
as the accessible areas have already been reaped clean over the last hundred years. The men
caught nothing although they tried very hard and tried continuously in many different places.
My conclusion is that the people along the coast will starve if they stay along the coast or, they
will have to move inland to find work for money to buy food. The population is growing and the
accessible food is depleting or is already wiped out in the tidal zone area that can be reached by foot.
Further out at sea you have the Chinese and other foreign large steel ships that reap the area
from ± 20 miles off shore (out of sight of land) and further by long – liners vessels or deep sea trawling.
Now, the area from the deep side of the tidal zone to ± 20 miles off shore, is not really being utilised by
the local people as they do not have the tools to operate in that area, which is the most productive
fishing area, along the whole coast line. I plan to produce a special tool that will open up that
entire area to the local indigenous fishermen. That is the “Super 5 Wonder Boat”!


No.2 CARGO TRANSPORTATION
Schaafsma’s 25 Meter Deep Sea Sailing Mother ship
This vessel is ideally suited for transportation of cargo, its stern section flaps down onto the
water surface or onto a jetty or sand bank to allow easy access to the deck boarding area. The hold
carrying area is 20 metres long by 7 metres wide. This is a minimum of 2 metres in height. higher
articles can be shipped that stick out above the deck as it has a canvas canopy that can be removed
if necessary.
Being an auxillary sailing vessel it is very economical to operate, especially over long distances. It can
anchor off the coast of any Island or river estuary and load off any handable cargo or the
masts can be used as cranes for heavier articles. Containers or up to 8 motor vehicles can be loaded
from a jetty or sand bank.
This vessel is a ideal trading – coaster for the African continent.

No.3 LONG DISTANCE COASTAL CONTROL AND RESEARCH
Schaafsma’s 25 Meter Deep Sea Sailing Mother ship
This vessel is ideally suited for a coastal policing and maritime research vessel because it is not a slow
vessel. It has all the modern high-tech instruments on board and surveillance apparatus above and
under the water.
It is also a very efficient search and rescue vessel because of its opening stern flap.
this brings you right down to the sea level and you can pick up persons or boat directly onto the
protected deck of the vessel without the use of cranes that could be dangerous in bad weather.
I was told by the lodge owner along the Mozambique coast that when they noticed large foreign ships
fishing out at sea opposite the lodge they report them to the Mozambique police. The police then have
to launch a rubber duck from the beach and chase the foreign fishing boat away by firing R.P.G
rockets at them.
Now with the Schaafsm’a 25 metre Deep Sea Sailing Ship the whole coast can be
monitored and protected by using sail power and smaller engines for economical reasons when needed
for patrolling, but when a foreign fishing boat has to be intercepted and arrested then all three engines
plus the sails can be used, then you can out run foreign vessel and arrest them.
At the same time the vessel can be used for search and rescue along the entire coast, because it would
always be in radio contact with its land base, so any accident or sinkage of a boat that is reported to
the land base can immediately send the 25 metre deep Sea Sailing Ship to its aid.
Finally it is a ideal maritime research vessel because of its large protected deck with the stern flap
door that allows for loading specimens of fish or whales on deck for research purpose.


No. 4 TOURISIM
Schaafsma’s 25 Meter Deep Sea Sailing Mother ship
This vessel is ideal for promoting tourism between the different lodges along the coast. In my
discussion and observation with some of the lodge owners, there is a good spirit of working together
with each other. For instance most lodgers do not have their own boats for taking their clients on fishing
trips or even sight seeing along the coast.
I also noticed that there are tour operators from S.A taking groups to a lodge in the south and
that everyday they walk from that lodge in the south to the next one to the north of it, and they stay
there for that night and walk onto the next lodge to the north the following day, and in this way they
can spend a week or a month just walking north along the beach to the next lodge.
Their luggage is taken from one lodge to the other by 4 wheel drive vehicle over land by bush tracks.
This is a great adventure and a major attraction. Now imagine if this was done by a
large sailing vessel like our 25 meter sailing ship. Remember the mother ship carries 8 smaller diesel –
sailing boats inside, to open its hold on deck, and they all enter the back of the ship through the stern
flap door.
All eight of the boats are “Super 5 metre wonder boats” that can land through the surf onto any beach
in front of any lodge. This means that instead of walking along the beach, from south to north
from one lodge to another, the tourist can now sail by sailing ship in comfort and excitement and even
catch their own fish as they go. There will also be accommodation for ± 30 passenger to over night on
the mother ship.
This project would harmonise all the lodges and the tourist will not need to travel for hours or days
over bad and dangerous roads, but enjoy the natural clean air and water’s of the Mozambique coast
line. The potential of the fishing and diving is endless.


No. 5 AID RELIEF
Schaafsma’s 25 Meter Deep Sea Sailing Mother ship
This vessel is ideal for distributing aid to all the little villages that are spread along the coast line after
a flood, tsunami or cyclone that often hits the coast. It can also evacuate the villagers that have been
cut off by road due to severe flooding inland or it can bring food and clean water for drinking where
the infrastructure of a village has been washed away.
A container, that has been especially designed as a hospital or emergency operating theatre, can be slid
up the back ramp and through the opening flap at the rear of the vessel to be used as a field hospital
and the 30 bunks on the vessel can be used as sick bunks, while the vessel ships the people
to the safety or a larger harbour and proper hospital.
The vessel also carries the 4 or 8 “Super 5 wonder Boats” in its hold, these can be used to motor up
rivers and large estuaries or Islands to penetrate the more remote shallows and inaccessible areas that
the larger mother boat can not, and investigate the situation inland.
Each “Super 5 Wonder Boat” has its own diesel engine and marine radio on board so it can always
stay in radio contact with the mother vessel. Each “Super 5 Wonder Boat” can also carry doctors and
nursing aids up the rivers to help the people on land that need medical attention.

Doctors and nurses can help
people in field hospital aboard
Mother Boat.

The “super 5 Wonder Boat”
can evacuate villagers from danger.

Food and clean drinking water
can be brought to villagers.


No. 6 A MOBILE EDUCATION AND TRAINING CENTRE
Schaafsma’s 25 Meter Deep Sea Sailing Mother ship
This vessel is also ideally suited as a “Training Sailing Ship” to teach the navy cadets or fishermen
the real modern techniques of deep sea sailing. The vessel can be used as a classroom to teach all the
safety and seamanship, first aid, fire fighting, rope work like the different knots, navigation, use
of life jackets and flares.
The mother vessel can be anchored off the coast at a certain area and the students can be taken from
a particular village and the “Super 5 Wonder boats” can be used to ferry the students from the village
on shore to the mother ship classroom and back to shore. The “Super 5 Wonder Boats” will actually
be used as their practical hands on training boat.
Once the student has passed all his exams he can be awarded a “Skippers certificate” so that now you
have a few well trained skippers in a particular village that can teach the other fishermen in the
village about safety at sea. These skippers can now be used in the tourist trade, to obtain their own
“Super 5 wonder Boat” to catch fish to provide for their families but, also to take out the tourist from
the lodges for fishing and diving trips.
MOTHER BOAT

The Mother boat can be used as class rooms to educate, teach safety and seamanship.