East Coast Trader, the Malay Peninsula, 1906

The ''pinas'', sometimes called "pinis" as well, is a type of

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...

of the east coast of the

Malay peninsula The Malay Peninsula ( Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The are ...

, built in the

Terengganu Terengganu (; Terengganu Malay: ''Tranung'', Jawi: ), formerly spelled Trengganu or Tringganu, is a sultanate and constitutive state of federal Malaysia. The state is also known by its Arabic honorific, ''Dāru l- Īmān'' ("Abode of Faith" ...

area. This kind of vessel was built of Chengal wood by the Malays since the 19th century and roamed the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

and adjacent oceans as one of the two types of traditional sailing vessels the late Malay maritime culture has developed: The '' bedar'' and the ''pinas''.

Description

The pinas is a sailing vessel built exclusively in the kuala (Malay: rivermouth) of the

Terengganu river The Terengganu River ( ms, Sungai Terengganu) is a river in Terengganu, Malaysia. Originated from Lake Kenyir, it flows through the state capital of Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, and flows into the South China Sea. It is bridged by the Sultan Mahm ...

. It was the largest of the ships built in the area, and was only used for deep sea navigation to distant ports. The pinas carried two masts, one in the bow, called "Topan", slightly raked forward, and the main mast, called "Agung" placed a bit forward of the center of the boat. The pinas had a very long

bowsprit The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay that counteracts the forces from the forestays. The word ''bowsprit'' is thought to originate from the Mid ...

, slightly bent downwards by the

bobstay A bobstay is a part of the rigging of a sailing boat or ship. Its purpose is to counteract the upward tension on the bowsprit from the jibs and forestay. A bobstay may run directly from the stem to the bowsprit, The original pinas was schooner-rigged with Bermuda topsails. This type was recorded by

Herbert Warington Smyth Herbert Warington Smyth (4 June 1867 – 19 December 1943) CMG, FGS, FRGS, was a British traveller, writer, naval officer and mining engineer who served the government of Siam and held several important posts in the Union of South Africa. Early ...

in 1906. After the 20th century, the masts carried a fully battened lug or "Junk"-sail. These sails were not made of cloth but of a matting material called "tikal" that is also used for floor matting and other purposes. Like most junk sails the battens were made of bamboo, usually creating 6 individual panels to the sail. The halyard was attached almost in the middle of the yard, and since the luff of the sail was nearly straight and only about half the length of the markedly convex leach, the yard, when hoisted, was sitting in an angle of about 15° – 20° with the vertical. The foresail was set on the port side of the ''Topan'' and the mainsail on the starboard side of the ''Agung''. A relatively small jib was set on the very long bowsprit. All pinas, even the big ones of 80 feet and above were steered by a tiller with a pulley block system easing the strain on a conventional rudder hinged on the stern post. This tiller was operated from within a round cabin (cup) placed on the stern of the boat. This cabin was housing the accommodation of the crew as well. The hold was reserved for the cargo. These boats sailed best with the wind on the quarter or just aft of the beam. Since the sails are fully battened and may be set almost at a right angle to the boat, they were able to set the ''Topan'' sail to windward, sailing wing to wing as soon as the wind was well aft of the beam. Going to windward was not the strong point of those junk rigged vessels, since the junk rig performs not as efficiently to windward as the modern Bermuda sail or the Gaff sail and the hulls of the cargo freighters were well rounded and offered not much lateral resistance. The Naga Pelangi under full canvas

The clipper type bow of the pinas often carried a carved figurehead called "Gobel" and the transom stern was raked aft and reached pretty high up above the waterline. The pinas had a well defined sheer and was a seaworthy vessel. The hull of the pinas is influenced by European boats of the early nineteenth century or later, and might well be a copy of the East Indiamen of the middle of the 19th century. The locals say that a Frenchman whose boat was wrecked on the shore of Terengganu in the 19th century settled there and his knowledge is said to have influenced the boatbuilding of the shipwrights. The word ''pinas'', locally pronounced almost sounds like ''penis'', is obviously derived from the French word ''pinasse'', which describes a small, usually two-masted sailing vessel. The English word ''pinnace'', a man-of-war's tender, is a deduction from the French word. These boats are also called Perahu (Malay: boat) pinas Golok, to distinguish them from other types built with a straight stem and without a beak (figurehead) the pinas Dogar. Golok, (Malay: cleaver/machete) or sword with a convex cutting edge, refers to the curved, clipper like bow.Cargo Boats of the East Coast of Malaya, Gibson-Hill, C.A. (1949), JMBRAS 22(3), p. 106-125

Building technique

The pinas boats of Terengganu are built using the indigenous technique the Malays have developed to build wooden boats. They build without plans, hull first, frames later. The planks are fire bent and joined edge on edge ( carvel) using "basok" (wooden

dowel A dowel is a cylindrical rod, usually made of wood, plastic, or metal. In its original manufactured form, a dowel is called a ''dowel rod''. Dowel rods are often cut into short lengths called dowel pins. Dowels are commonly used as structural r ...

s) made from ''Penaga''-

ironwood Ironwood is a common name for many woods or plants that have a reputation for hardness, or specifically a wood density that is heavier than water (approximately 1000 kg/m3, or 62 pounds per cubic foot), although usage of the name ironwood in E ...

(

Mesua ferrea ''Mesua ferrea'', the Ceylon ironwood, or cobra saffron, is a species in the family Calophyllaceae. This slow-growing tree is named after the heaviness and hardness of its timber. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental due to its graceful sh ...

). There is no European style

caulk Caulk or, less frequently, caulking is a material used to seal joints or seams against leakage in various structures and piping. The oldest form of caulk consisted of fibrous materials driven into the wedge-shaped seams between boards on ...

ing hammered into a groove between the planks: Before the new plank is hammered home, a strip of ''kulit gelam'' (Malay: paperbarks skin) of the

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They range in size ...

species is placed over the dowels. This 1–2 mm layer of a natural material has remarkable sealing properties.

History

The tradition of building wooden boats in modern Malaysia reaches far back in time: For overseas trade, for fishing, for piracy, for travelling up the many rivers, for each purpose they developed a special design.Keeping the Tradition of Boatbuilding Alive, Keith Ingram, Magazine: Professional Skipper March/April 2007, p. 70 A conceivable anecdote of the origin of both the name and type of ship is based on a report by R.S. Ross, then master of the British East India Company's steamer ''Phlegeton'', who on the occasion a visit to

Kuala Terengganu , image_seal = Seal of Kuala Terengganu City Council.png , image_flag = Flag of Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu.svg , image_skyline = , image_caption = From top, left to right:The Crystal Mosq ...

, Malaysia, in 1846 witnessed a schooner built locally by "some of the natives hohad learnt the art of shipbuilding at Singapore, and ereassisted by Chinese carpenters", that is speculated to have become the archetype for the Terengganu ''perahu pinas'' or ''pinis''. Malay traditions allege that this schooner was built on behalf of Baginda Omar, the

Sultan of Terengganu Sultan of Terengganu () is the title of the constitutional head of Terengganu state in Malaysia. The current Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin of Terengganu, is the 18th sultan and 13th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia from 2006 to 2011. He is the head ...

(reigned 1839–1876), possibly either under direction or with considerable help by a German or French beachcomber who had "reached Terengganu, by way of Malacca and Singapore, in search of "''opium cum dignitate''", to become the archetype of the 'Malay schooner': The Terengganu ''pinas''/''pinis'', today carrying batten-lug sails, until the turn to the 20th century was commonly rigged as a gaff-ketch. The two ''perahu besar'' (Malay: big boat) of Terengganu, the ''pinas'' and the ''bedar'' are the result of this cultural interchange. Jib and bowsprit of the two are of western origin, with

junks A junk (Chinese: 船, ''chuán'') is a type of Chinese sailing ship with fully battened sails. There are two types of junk in China: northern junk, which developed from Chinese river boats, and southern junk, which developed from Austronesian ...

almost never carrying one. The desire for the ever-faster and more manoeuvrable vessel combined the positive elements and created these junk hybrids. The boatbuilders of Terengganu were re-“discovered” during the World War II by the Japanese navy who had wooden minesweepers built there by the carpenters and fishing folks. Since that time the Malays have stopped building sailing boats for their own use, but they kept manufacturing fishtrawlers and ferries, built using the old techniques. Rising timber prices and lack of demand forced one after the other yard out of business, so today this tradition is on the brink of extinction, with very few able craftsmen still practicing this rare old building technique. After the 2nd world war was over, the boat building of the island of Duyong in Kuala Terengganu was again discovered by traditional boat enthusiasts from western countries. Amongst those boats that were built, there were 8 pinas including one big enough to qualify as a "Perahu Besar", the pinas '' Naga Pelangi''. The pinas built for westerners are: Boats, Boatbuilding and Fishing in Malaysia, The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,, MBRAS 2009, p. 349/350

Gallery

Image:The Naga Pelangi sailing butterfly.JPG, The pinas Naga Pelangi sailing butterfly Image:The Naga Pelangi butterfly.JPG, The pinas Naga Pelangi 2010 in Langkawi Image:Naga Pelangi beating into a 25 knot wind.jpg, The pinas Naga Pelangi beating at 7 knots Image:The Jun Bathera, 1981.JPG, The Jun Bathera, a pinas built in 1976, sailing in the estuary of the Terengganu river, 1981 Image:The pinas Sri-Duyong, Singapore, 1980.jpg, The pinas Sri Duyong in Singapore, 1980 Image:The Jun Bathera, 1979.jpg, The pinas Jun Bathera on Duyong island, 1979 Image:An old pinas model, Kuala Terengganu, 1980.jpg, An old pinas model floating on the Terengganu river, 1981 Image:traditional Malay plank bending.jpg, Building a pinas 2004 - plank bending 1 Image:Traditional Malay plank bending by fire.jpg, Building a pinas 2004 - plank bending 2 Image:Building the Naga Pelangi - fitting the first plank.jpg, Building a pinas 2004 - fitting the first plank, the garboard strake Image:Malay boat building - producing the wooden dowels - basok.jpg, Building a pinas 2004 - producing the wooden dowels Image:Traditional Malay boat building - applying the caulking bark.jpg, Building a pinas 2004 - applying the caulking bark Image:Naga Pelangi building without frames.jpg, Building a pinas 2004 - no frames yet Image:Traditional Malay boat building.jpg, Building a pinas 2004 - frames are adjusted to hull Image:Building the Naga Pelangi.jpg, Building a pinas 2004 - all frames and stringers are in place

References

External links

The website of the pinas Naga Pelangi

Junk Rig Association
*Th
Voyage of the Dragon King, Details of the junk rig, include a diagrams and photos

Magazine "Professional Skipper" article about the boatbuilding in DuyongChengal wood
{{Austronesian ships Chinese inventions +Pinas (ship) + Transport in Terengganu South China Sea Tall ships