Feluccas

[Dana Marlin]

I am a boatbuilder in Malta (little island in the Mediterranean) am am very interested in the lines of the San Francisco Feluccas (Dago boats) - Lateen rigged double-enders. I read that Henry Rusk took the lines of the last reamining one before it evaporated. I am trying to locate a copy of these plans. Can anyone help? Are there any other Felucca builders out there that have plans, pictures etc? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[Peter Belenky]

The plans were published in
"American Small Sailing Craft" By Howard Irving Chapelle

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=RzbsxR5Nj4gC&dq=american+small+sailing+craft+chappelle&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=hjrvEktlLV&sig=Jmjs8JIPMgLVGPw3pN5JFd29L8s

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=RzbsxR5Nj4gC&dq=american+small+sailing+craft+chappelle&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=hjrvEktlLV&sig=Jmjs8JIPMgLVGPw3pN5JFd29L8s#PPA286,M1

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=RzbsxR5Nj4gC&dq=american+small+sailing+craft+chappelle&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=hjrvEktlLV&sig=Jmjs8JIPMgLVGPw3pN5JFd29L8s#PPA287,M1

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=RzbsxR5Nj4gC&dq=american+small+sailing+craft+chappelle&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=hjrvEktlLV&sig=Jmjs8JIPMgLVGPw3pN5JFd29L8s#PPA290,M1

Printed plans may be purchased from the Smithsonian Institution.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/shipplan.htm

[Peter Belenky]

Also, photos of the replica Nuovo Mondo on pages 128-129 here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=rh-VpCTgpoUC&pg=PA120&sig=5zGB5A60_42Sb4qvnfc8uzX-h5c#PPA128,M1

and page 56 here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=0R--CtWIm_AC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=francisco+felucca&source=web&ots=ZbLWl7h1pM&sig=E3qaIyufN8D-OJwy7KDkWZ7qQ5c

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=462250&page=2

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/partegue/nouvgiens.html

http://www.amers.info/Patrimoine-maritime.html


An old painting here:
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt396n99g5/?docId=kt396n99g5&brand=oac&layout=printable-details

and some more documentation:
http://home.um.edu.mt/medinst/mmhn/giovanni_panella.pdf

[rbgarr]

The Woodenboat Magazine Index here has info.http://catboat1.woodenboat.com/cgi-bin/wbindex/search.cgi
Search for fellucca.

[tchiffriller]

Whats the deal with a Fellucca's mast?

[Tanbark Spanker]

It's a form of 'Latreen Rig.' Opps, I mean 'Lateen.' Dean Stevens built Dago. I've had the chance to closely inspect three Dean Stevens built boats. They were very well made.

"It gets pretty snorty in the Med!" Old sailor, 1998.

[Clyderigged]

You might want to write to John Muir (yes, there is actually a John Muir working here:D) at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. John has a lot of experience sailing the Museum's Felucca Nuovo Mondo.
john_c_muir@nps.gov

[Bob Cleek]

I've always kept my eye open for the remains of one, but I've never found the "holy grail." There were bunches of them, but most bit the big one when they were able to put small one-lungers in them. They just got used up. When it came time to build another, once the Hick's gas engine company was up and running, the type evolved into the Monterey fish boat.

http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2006/07/03/ba_boat00_017_pc.jpg

I've considered building one from time to time... just daydreaming, but I have always heard that they were very tricky to sail and prone to becoming overpowered and capsizing. The replica owned by the SFNMM lost it on a jibe and went down during a Master Mariner's race some years back. (It was recovered.) I don't know if I'd want to risk that on a regular basis. Anybody know the tricks of the trade on sailing a lateen rig? There must be some, or the old Dagos wouldn't have lasted too long.

[J. Dillon]

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/2706/felucafullloadedonnilewv6.jpg

I don't think this Nile skipper is worried about capsizing... maybe sinking;)

JD

[Antonio Majer]

I think the closest ancestor of the Dago boat is the gozzo sorrentino - if La Chapelle is right when he writes that she was introduced in USA by Italian immigrants from Napoli. See here: http://www.lavelalatina.it/vela_latina/tipologie/gozzo_sorrento/01.htm (the author says this boat was originally rigged with a sprit sail, converted into Latin sail later)

[BrianM]

I am a boatbuilder in Malta (little island in the Mediterranean) am am very interested in the lines of the San Francisco Feluccas (Dago boats) - Lateen rigged double-enders. I read that Henry Rusk took the lines of the last reamining one before it evaporated. I am trying to locate a copy of these plans. Can anyone help? Are there any other Felucca builders out there that have plans, pictures etc? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Hello Dana, Kif int?

I have a strong sentiment for the Feluccas, as I am grandson of Maltese and Italian immigrants, a Native San Franciscan, own Chappelle's book "Small Sailing Craft", and am looking for a new boat to build myself. I'd love to see examples of the craft you've built in Malta, and perhaps "shadow" you in the construction of my own Felucca.

Ciao,

Brian

[Osborne Russell]

(the author says this boat was originally rigged with a sprit sail, converted into Latin sail later)

On the page you cite, there's a drawing of the most extreme low-aspect rig I've ever seen -- a sprit mainsail with a foot about twice as long as the mast (overhangs the stern) and a jib on a bowsprit that overhangs the bow by about 2/3 of a boat length.

Is it for real?

[Antonio Majer]

Is it for real?
I’m not able to answer your question, but I think those drawings may be reliable though. In ‘barche tradizionali italiane’ by Lodigiani, I read there are (were maybe) two types of gozzi sorrentini: one very small (varchetta) for fishing for octopus along the coast, the other (gozzo a menaide) for fishing anchovies with a particular net, the 'menaide'. This gozzo (that one of the drawings) was narrow and fast at rowing, 7-8 m long, relatively high at stem, and low at stern to lower the nets and hold the 'lampara' (the lamp). The menaide wasn’t properly a trawl-net, but wasn’t used at anchor either. In Italian, it was a ‘rete da posta alla deriva’, i.e. with the net going adrift. Probably that extreme low-aspect rig has to be related with the use of that net - but I’m not qualified to say this. I have read there were 3-4 boats involved in the fishing: a small one at anchor (barchetta), with the others sailing round her.
---
Just to add that in the page I cited, the author gives a description of another type of traditional fishing, involving two small gozzi, sailing with the net stretched from one boat to the other (which could have been pretty dangerous with high-aspect rigs, I think).
---
I was thinking: the fact is the more a boat is fast at rowing, the more she works bad at sailing, I have read this concept here too. The gozzi sorrentini were fast boats at rowing, having a ratio of length/width 5:1, I mean long and narrow, no surprise if the rig had a low aspect (Chapelle shows a Dago boat with a ratio of about 3,5:1 instead)

[StevenBauer]

Here's a pic from tanbark's Noaa historic photo link:

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/700s/fish7393.jpg

[StevenBauer]

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/700s/fish6923.jpg

[Canoeyawl]

http://www.gunkholing.org/Images/wreckelisabeth%20009edit.jpg

[Dana Marlin]

Thanks for all the feedback! In Malta there used to be a boat built called a Firilla (those of you who know Maltese - this is in the martime meaning not the other...) - these boats are not built anymore and were overshadowed by the Luzzu after WWI due to the latter being able to handle engine propulsion better and being drier. The Firillas (like their cousins the Xprunara http://www.geocities.com/melitahistoricac/hw19938.html ) were fast sailers and similar to the SF Dago boats in terms to Lenght to Beam ratio and freeboard, but had a steep rise at the bow with a very long extended stem - similar to the Gozzo boats... Anyway, I am interested in building a Firilla replica or two after I finish my little cutter in the picture below. Any further insight and suggestions or comments are very welcome. Thanks Dana
http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v199/150/84/597214001/n597214001_641232_360.jpg (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=641232&id=597214001)

[Dana Marlin]

Hello Dana, Kif int?

I have a strong sentiment for the Feluccas, as I am grandson of Maltese and Italian immigrants, a Native San Franciscan, own Chappelle's book "Small Sailing Craft", and am looking for a new boat to build myself. I'd love to see examples of the craft you've built in Malta, and perhaps "shadow" you in the construction of my own Felucca.

Ciao,

Brian

Aw Brian, Tajjeb. U Inti? Kif sejjer hemm? Can you help me get some information on the SF Dago boats? I am taking the lines off some old rotting remains of Firillas here and have a little one that is restorable which I will bring back to life and use as a reference, but since boats were never built to plans here in Malta I have to rely on a few pictures and my eye to re-create the bygone beauties that once floated around the Grand Harbor like flotsom..

What kind of boats do you build?

[DonMacL]

4th try:
More years ago than I would like to remember I bought a lanteen-rigged fiberglass Gozzo. My friend said I could never past a boat without wanting to buy it; he,of course, was wrong I have passed many boats without buying them or even thinking about buying them. I digress. This boat had It had been built in Italy and the former owner had lost, mislaid or never had the rigging hardware. Early on the only example I could find that was helpful was a photo of "Nuovo Mundo", a boat that was constructed by someone for the San Franscisco Maritime Museum; it had a history of the local use of the boat by Italian immigrant fishermen who had brought the design with them to the local fishery in the late 1800s. After a lot of research I came up with very little except when I put "fellucca" into a search I usually came up on the Nile showing photos of Dhows with little in the way of detail. In the last five years or so more has shown up on the internet but with little detail. The following are a list of European regattas and sites, mostly France, Italy and Morrocco, that have started to show up in the last few years, again with a lack of rigging detail. If anyone comes across a rigging site for this boat I would appreciate hearing about it. The "mast" is about 8', the "spar" is a narrow 20' pole about 2x3" rectangular end and about 2" square on the tip. The boat is a double ender about 17' long with a massive tiller and equally massive oars.


The following are a few interesting sites.


St Tropez
http://www.bymnews.com/Events/html/lateen_regatta.html


Regata vela latina
http://www.velelatine.it/public/


Model Boat Rigging icw lateen rigs
http://www.all-model.com/wolfram/PAGE88.html
http://www.all-model.com/wolfram/PAGE108.html

[DonMacL]

“Nuova Mondo” 18'7” felucca replica built by Larry Hitchcock, San Francisco, CA 1987.
“Felucca. Lateen rigged.
Lateen: A three sided sail with a spar along its upper (and longest) edge that is hoisted on a short mast to about 45*. A fellucca's sail is an example.” Pg.56 “Sloops” The Guide to Wooden Boats, Benjamin Mendlowitz & Maynard Bros., WW Norton & Co., ISBN 0-393-0405-3. http: web.wwnorton.co

[DonMacL]

Two more:




http://www.pbase.com/gommalacca/gozzo

http://www.pbase.com/gommalacca/voiles_latines

[dreyer]

illalu! Uff I miss malta... Pastizzi (spelling?) especially. The most delicious thing you could spend 7c on!

Your boat is lovely Dana.

I used to work in malta on Istros. She is moored in Ta Xbiex marina.

You live in a small paradise mate. A small paradise with far too many cars but its still paradise.

:)

[Dana Marlin]

illalu! Uff I miss malta... Pastizzi (spelling?) especially. The most delicious thing you could spend 7c on!

Your boat is lovely Dana.

I used to work in malta on Istros. She is moored in Ta Xbiex marina.

You live in a small paradise mate. A small paradise with far too many cars but its still paradise.

:)

Yep, I know... I was living in California for 13 years and enjoyed it, but always wanted to come back to where my heart was. I got a house on the bastions in Birgu in the Grand Harbor with steps down to the sea. I'm back where I want to be... Now I just need to build an old Firilla and chase a few Corsairs and I'll be back in the cycle of the history of this little rock...

[Dana Marlin]

Two more:




http://www.pbase.com/gommalacca/gozzo

http://www.pbase.com/gommalacca/voiles_latines (http://www.pbase.com/gommalacca/voiles_latines)


Here are a couple of others:

Catalan sites
http://www.atotdrap.cat/node/2
http://www.modelismonaval.com/magazine/barcascatalanas/galeria2.html

And a Maltese one
http://www.ghajnsielem.com/feature/dghajsa_tal-latini_restoration.html

[Antonio Majer]

I think the term ‘feluca’ is misleading. For what I know, in Italy there was only a boat named 'feluca', while many types of Gozzi existed and still exist in Italy and in the Mediteranean area.

Chapelle writes:

"...It appears however that this name [felucca] was unknown on the San Francisco waterfront..."
..and more surprising, in the note to Fig.105:
"Plan of a small example of the now extinct San Francisco fishing boat politely called "felucca" in the U.S. Governament reports."

"Politely": is there some irony? is Chapelle saying to us that the term "felucca" is too suggestive for a scientific work? I for one think so, the Dago boat is probably an American Gozzo.

[Dana Marlin]

this is an excerpt from "Dhow racing" by David Howarth

Lateen, like dhow itself, is a word based on a misunderstanding. Western Europeans first saw this kind of sail on ships from the eastern Mediterranean at the time of the Crusades. They called it a Latin sail; and the word reached the English as lateen because the English heard it from the French, and in French a sail is feminine: hence une voile latine . But the sail was not really Latin. It had reached the Byzantine Empire from the south and might better have been called a Muslim sail, because it existed on all the coasts the Arabs conquered after the time of the Prophet.
The ancient Greeks and Romans did not have it, nor did the Egyptians, but it is believed to have been in use in the Arabian seas since at least the fourth century BC. And since it spread all over the Muslim shores, it seems likely it was spread by the early Muslim conquerors and had its origin in Arabia like the faith itself.... Whoever [its] inventors were, the lateen was a momentous idea, for it was the earliest sail that enabled men to beat against the wind.
The essence of sailing against the wind is that the leading edge of the sail should be attached to something solid: the mast, a spar or a stay. A square sail, hung from a horizontal yard, can only be set at a limited angle to the wind before its leading edge is taken aback. But if the yard is tilted down toward the bows, the yard itself becomes the leading edge, and the sail can be set much closer [to the wind].
The Mediterranean lateen is a complete triangle, but the Arab lateen is not: Its forward corner is cut off, leaving a short unsupported vertical edge,... a luff. This has been taken to mean that the Arab sail is an intermediate stage in the evolution, as if the Arabs had tilted their yards that far and never gone any farther.
But I think that is wrong. ...The lateen has a second advantage over the square sail: It means you can set a much bigger sail on a mast of the same height, and the Arab luff makes the sail bigger still. Suppose the mast is 65 feet [20m] above the deck, which is a normal height for a big dhow: The forward part of the yard cannot be more than the effective height of the mast, because the whole yard has to be swung up vertically when the ship goes about. The after part has to be longer and heavier...; altogether the yard would be about [37m] feet long. But in a triangular sail, the forward end of the yard is supporting very little canvas; by cutting off that corner you can add several hundred square feet to the [area of] sail [supported by the after part of the yard]. The luff has a hefty rope in it and is held bar taut by the weight of the yard, so it makes an effective leading edge. A dhow can set over 7000 square feet of canvas [650m2 ] in a single sail on a single 65-foot mast, much more than any other working rig that has ever been devised.
—David Howarth

[Antonio Majer]

Dana, it's very interesting, and just out of curiosity I like a lot the proposed term 'Muslim sail'.
I'm not able to catch your personal opinion about the term 'felucca' though. Do you think it's a right term? General speaking our civilization comes from East, and this is particularly true for us Italians. Nevertheless if one has to find the direct ancestor of a boat, it would be nonsense to look for the original hollowed trunk of a tree. For me, the Dago boat is probably a gozzo, and the origins of the gozzi must be searched in the far Muslim East obviously (as for the most famous Italian boat, the Gondola). Felucca is a suggestive term, right in the One Thousand and One Nights, but too generic in the attempt to understand the history of a boat, i.e. in the history of men, ships courses, trades and wars (in my opinion).

[Dana Marlin]

Dana, it's very interesting, and just out of curiosity I like a lot the proposed term 'Muslim sail'.
I'm not able to catch your personal opinion about the term 'felucca' though. Do you think it's a right term? General speaking our civilization comes from East, and this is particularly true for us Italians. Nevertheless if one has to find the direct ancestor of a boat, it would be nonsense to look for the original hollowed trunk of a tree. For me, the Dago boat is probably a gozzo, and the origins of the gozzi must be searched in the far Muslim East obviously. Felucca is a suggestive term, right in the One Thousand and One Nights, but too generic in the attempt to understand the history of a boat, i.e. in the history of men, ships courses, trades and wars (in my opinion).

Yes, sorry for the confusion. I posted that info on the Lateen sail without any reference to the Felucca term - you're right they are not really connected. The term Felucca is a bit of a general term for a traditional Mediterranean boat - usually having one or two masts with Lateen sails. Since all other names for such boats like Gozzi, Firilla, Xprunara, Dhow etc are specific to a particular boat, the term Felucca appears to be a wrap-around term for the general type of mediterranean boat - at least as far as I can tell...

[Antonio Majer]

I'm reading 'feluca' comes from Arabian FALUKA, probably from ancient FULK or FOLK (ship, probably linked with the verb FALAKA, 'to be round').
So it seems to be as generic as the term 'ship' is.
---
In Italian: http://www.etimo.it/?term=feluca&find=Cerca

[dreyer]

Yep, I know... I was living in California for 13 years and enjoyed it, but always wanted to come back to where my heart was. I got a house on the bastions in Birgu in the Grand Harbor with steps down to the sea. I'm back where I want to be... Now I just need to build an old Firilla and chase a few Corsairs and I'll be back in the cycle of the history of this little rock...

I know exactly where you are. I used to work a lot on the boats Istros and Solway Maid with a carpenter from Conspicua named Lawrence. I cant remember his last name though mella. His cabinetwork was phenomenal & he was a really good guy. Do you know him by chance?

[Dana Marlin]

I know exactly where you are. I used to work a lot on the boats Istros and Solway Maid with a carpenter from Conspicua named Lawrence. I cant remember his last name though mella. His cabinetwork was phenomenal & he was a really good guy. Do you know him by chance?

No, sorry I don't know Lawrence, but he would be my neighbor as I live in Birgu. Does he have a shop or a yard? Lots of people round here are named Lawrence because St. Lawrence is the patron saint for this area...

[BrianM]

Hello Dana,

Sorry for not getting back to you almost 6 months ago. Anyhow, somebody nearby is said to be building a Felucca. I intend to contact him and if allowed will take photos and feed you the info.

Brian Mifsud

[johnw]

I've seen similar boats used for fishing in Greece. I got a chance to sail on one, but there wasn't enough wind to drive the boat and we had to make it to Iraklion on a schedule, so we motored most of the way. They were about the size of a small Dago boat, lateen rig, and since this was in the early '70s, relied mainly on the motor.