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Maldives is the only country in the whole world, who has the biggest SEA area, when compared to the country's Land-Area. As thus, Maldives covers with 99% SEA and 1% Land. Therefore traditionally; Fishing has been considered as the back-bone of the country. And the bridge with the past, present and the future - the constant blood line that runs through the life of the Maldives islands is the boat, which we refer it in Dhivehi as, "Dhoani". By looking at its fish-shape, is a hint that it was crafted by skilled craftsmen. Some writers says; "It bears a remarkable resemblance to the elegant reed bundle ships shared by the world's earliest civilizations - Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. It has even more in common with the Phoenician ships, which were made from wooden planks but retained the papyrus form of the older civilization."

Till todate, some of the Dhoanis are crafted in the ancient way, by boring holes and sewing the planks together with a locally available stick called "Kuredi", this is a tree stick which is naturally-grown on the sea side of mostly uninhabited islands of Maldives. And then caulking them with wooden plugs and pitch. Further to fill the gaps of the planks, dried coconut husks are used as a gap-filler.
This is the most difficult and skillful method in the traditional-construction of Dhoanis. Today, this skilled workmanship is a very rare-scene and its a natural gift from Allah to only few people. As while the construction goes on the design and measurements are in the heart of the MAAVADI (the head carpenter).

Planking Madu	Trimming Kuredi	Cleanning Coconut Husks

The second and the most easiest traditional concept in the Maldivian Dhoani construction history was conducted on a commercial-scale in early 1990's at Alifu Boat Yard; where the skeleton-like structure of the Dhoani was built at first. Followed-by, the planks were fastened to the skeleton-like structure from the outside of the structure; by boring holes and screwing copper-rods and then hammering both the side of the rods, after keeping vassaru on both sides. For this concept, the workforce no need to be skilled. And the Dhoanis of this sort of construction lasts for about 8 to 10 years.

The third and the modern-day construction of Maldivian Dhoanis are based on computer-aided designs. Skilled workers are NOT required - with some hard workers and a foremen could do the job of a 90 footer Dhoani easily in 2 to 3 months. Here, at first the designs are drawn on a computer with a CAD system. There-by the structures are .........................

Indeed, the Dhivehi word for boat-building, 'Dhoani Banun' literally means boat binding or tying together to make it as one piece.

In the 14th Century, our ancestors began the construction and building of dhoanis. At first, they begins by laying-down of the keel. After the main keel, they make the bottom keel which is the most bottom-part of the dhoani. There on they starts with the front-keel (kuree-mahyaa) and tail-keel (fahathu-mahyaa). - See below pictures

Maavadi visualizing with Front-Keel

The Keel

Maavadi working with Tail-Keel

Once the keels are completed, maavadi and his co-workers starts with the planks - beginning with Bandu-Madu, which is the first plank on both the sides. With the help of today's modern electronic machines (saw, drill, cutter, sewing machine, buruma), it takes about 1-1/2 to 2 months to complete the first phase of the construction, were about 1/3rd of the Dhoani's planking's will be completed. - See below pictures

After the 1st phase of construction

After the 1st phase of construction

After the 1st phase of construction

Once the 1st phase of construction is completed - Maavadi and his vadi-group starts gathering "Bandu-Vah". Bandu-Vah is the curved part of tree branches or the joints of the branches of some specific trees, known as, dhigaa, hirudhu, funa (Dhivehi names for trees). This is another skilled area of the Maavadi. As by looking at the trees he will identify the best parts of the trees which are Bandu-Vah.

These Bandu-Vah will be trimmed neatly with a sort of a locally made axe, specifically designed for its purpose. And it has to be trimmed according to the shape of the bottom part of the hull. And these Badu-Vah will be laid-down inside the hull giving a length of one foot between the two Badu-Vah. See below pictures

Bandu-Vah

Bandu-Vah

Bandu-Vah

To complete the 1st phase of construction - Maavadi and his co-workers will begin the lay-down of the 'vah'. These are curved tree branches, which are sourced from Hirundhu, Dhigaa and Funa (local names for the trees). Upon the completion of Vah - the dhoani will be half-way constructed and will be very strong and this is the part which is mostly bottom of the sea. See below pictures.

Also, at this stage - Maavadi will discuss the prospective fishing crews and the keyolhu (prospective fishing crews captain) on how to divide the hull, which we called 'vaiy-bai-kurun'. As the hull will be divided based the keyolhu and crews requirements.

At first, from the tail of the dhoani; an area will be taken for the wheel-gear system, and then a part for the generator and the batteries' and for other equipments, next will be the main engine-area, then come to the 'mas-vaiy' - traditionally this 'mas-vaiy is the place where all the landings of fish (in pole & line fishing) are stored (in today's fishing vessels they have chilled and/or cooled hatches to store fish (raw material); now then it comes to the most important and the indispensable 'en-vaiy' - in some dhoanis (mostly bigger dhoanis) they have two 'en-vaiy'. These 'en-vaiy' is the hull-area where the live baits are kept. The need for two 'en-vaiy' is that sometimes the keyolhu and crews will take two different types of baits, which they may not able to kept togather in a single vaiy.

Say, for example the live-baits the local fishermen use to catch skipjack (pole & line) is very much different to the live-baits which they uses to catch yellowfin (handline).

Finally the last part will be the accommodation-area. The beauty of the Maavadi and his co-wrokers skilled-work is that when the planks of the vaiy are sewed togather - a single drop of water will not leak to the accommodation-area; however the accommodation-area is next to the 'en-vaiy' - and this 'en-vaiy is almost full of sea-water with live-bait.

Vah

Vah

Vah

Moving on the the 2nd phase of the construction is where the Maavadi and his co-wrokers begins to sew the planks of the hull. See below pictures.....

2nd phase - Madu Indhun

2nd phase - Madu Indhun

2nd phase - Madu Indhun

Upon half-way through the sewing of the 2nd phase planks - the vadi-group will start trimming the planks from inside of the dhoani and cleanning the dhoani to have a good view. See below pictures.....

During the 2nd phase cleanning process - the Maavadi will go on thinking, viewing, brain-storming, discussing, talking, gaining-knowledge, re-thinking, visualizing with regard to the design of the dhoani.

Their-by the Maavadi and the vadi-group goes to the 3rd phase of the construction of the hull, which is the last part of the hull-construction of a 95 footer Maldivian timber-fishing dhoani. Below are the pictures of how the dhoani looks like when the 3rd phase of the hull-construction is completed.

Hull-Construction completed

Hull-Construction completed

Hull-Construction completed

Immediately the Maavadi and the vadi-group will begin to lay-down the 2nd part of the 'vah', which is the final structure of the dhoani hull-construction. See below pictures .......

Upon Completion of final Madu and final Vah

Dhoani Outside Before Trimming

Dhoani Outside Before Trimming

Dhoani Outside Before Trimming

Once the construction of the hull is completed including all the vah - then moves onto complete the 'vaiy'. While the completion of vaiy goes on - some vadi-group members will work-on with the inside side-beams, which we call it as 'Dharaa' (see the below right picture). Dharaas' are beams from top keel to the bottom of the last-part of the hull. These Dharaas strengthen-up the hull and it helps in rough seas.

Vaiy Completion

Vaiy Completion

'Dharaa' Work

After the vaiy completion (above pictures) - the deck-structure will be laid-down (See below pictures). Along with the deck-structure a strong beam of 14" x 6" thick beam will be laid-down from the accommodation-area vaiy to the last-part of the dhoani, along the deck level - this beam is known as 'Thaa'. This 'thaa' is again to strengthen-up the dhoani against rough seas. See below pictures.......

Deck Structure

Deck Structure with 'Thaa'

Deck Structure with 'Thaa'

Upon completion of the deck structure - outside of the dhoani will be neatly trimmed. See below pictures. ........

Dhoani Outside After Trimming

Dhoani Outside After Trimming

Dhoani Outside After Trimming

Finally the finishing of the deck - which is the laying-down of the deck by 2" x 2" timber - closely nailed by copper nails. See below pictures.... Also the 'Mootu' - which is the pilar for ropeing, while anchored. There are two 'Mootus' on the back deck of each Maldivian dhoani.

Setting of Deck-Filaa

Deck-Filaa

Making of 'Mootu'

Finally the big day has come to put the dhoani into the sea. At this stage, we have hired a Master who is armed with traditional skills of dry-docking. This is very risky - as if the dhoani falls to any-side, then Millions of Mrf's are lost. It took 2 days for us to push the dhoani onto the sea. The Master has used some ropes, some sand bags, some used tires, a jack, and some clippers. See below pictures.