Shipbuilders bid to make world's biggest wooden vessel.

• Report rights infringement
• published: 04 Aug 2015
• views: 5

Dubai Creek. It's from here that Dubai flourished. The deep water creek made it an ideal port allowing Dubai to become a major trading centre in the Gulf. Merchants from East Africa, Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf states came here to sell silk, gold, fish, spices and frankincense and to buy pearls and dates. Sea trading used to depend on dhows and so boat building developed as one of the main industries in Dubai. Despite the discovery of oil in the 1970s, trade is still an important industry in the UAE, but these days most goods are transported in large metal container ships. Many of the original boat builders now use plastic and are more likely to manufacture pleasure cruisers. But wooden dhows continue to travel between Dubai and Iran and Pakistan. Most are relatively small and are built in Pakistan where there are many skilled boat builders and wages are low. Few Emiratis are interested in building dhows any more, but one family business is continuing the tradition. And not only that - the Obaid dhow building company is hoping to get into the Guinness Book of Records for building the world's largest wooden dhow. This dhow, the Obaid 10, is already one of the world's biggest. 60 metres long (196.87 feet) with a width of 14 metres (45.93 feet) it stands 7 metres (22.97 feet) high and can carry 2500 tonnes. In the old tradition the men use fresh wood to assemble the planks first and then shape the ribs inside them. The only concession to modernity is that rope and natural fibres have given way to nails. Ahmed Obaid Al Falasi's father started the family dhow building business more than 40 years ago. He says he cannot give up what his father started: "This is our job, our father's job, our grandfather's job. We cannot leave this job. If we close this job, what will we do? We don't know anything, only this job. We love this job, we cannot leave. We cannot stop." But he concedes things have changed drastically since his father started the business and that young people are not interested in working hard now. Most of the workers are from Pakistan and India. "The young man, the young people, the mind is different now. Somebody like cars, somebody like buildings, somebody like ... the mind has changed not like before." The Obaid 10 was so big when it was completed that it took several weeks to push it into the creek. In the end the workers succeeded with the help of diggers, cranes and tow boats. The Obaid 10 was heading for Bosaso, a major sea port within the autonomous Puntland state within Somalia, a journey of seven days. Puntland is an area in the north east of the country containing around a third of the Somali population. It declared itself an autonomous state in 1998 but is not seeking outright independence. The Obaid 10 is now currently in Yemen, a stop on its way back to the UAE. Obaid's dhows are used to transport goods to Somalia where a high mark-up on goods enables a healthy profit. Everything is piled up inside including second hand cars, tyres, televisions, rice, bed linen and canned fruit. The return trip brings cows and charcoal, although trade in the latter has been affected by a United Nations embargo. Economies of scale mean that the round trip makes a good profit of around 100-thousand US dollars. But it will take several journeys to get back the 2.5 million US dollar cost of building the dhow. Ahmed Obaid is now set on building an even bigger dhow that will be 84 metres long (275.6 feet), 20 metres wide (65.6 feet) and 35 metres (115 feet) high with the ability to four thousand tonnes. The new dhow is estimated to cost 4 million US dollars and will carry 4000 tones in weight. "My family was into boat building, my grandfather and father, so it's in my blood." You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/30eeae3d3c969a224ad1688bdc8e3be0 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork