AIDING NICARAGUAN NEEDY .

Local boat building project
will help keep village afloat

AL BROWN’S answer comes easily when asked what has
’ brought him the most satisfaction during the past year and a
-half that he has been building a fishing boat in North Van-
‘couver for the people of San Juan Del Sur in Nicaragua:

“I's the people I've met during
the project,’’ Brown replies.

He carries the vivid memory of a
rainy winter day in 1986 when an
elderly Lynn Valicy man rapped on

the Mosquito Creek boat shed with

a cane. “This old age pensioner
had walked from Lynn Valley —
didn’t even have money for a bus.
He gave us $50."’

Brown has put his own. liveli-
hood as a fisherman on hold while
she helps piece together a modern

fishing boat for the 5,000 people.

inhabiting a. small fishing village
"on the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua.
“If you saw these women and kids
. with baskets and no food in them,
you'd see it was an easy decision.
We're kind .of spoiled up here."”
The years of Sandinistas-Contra.
conflict have left the villagers ill-

equipped and° impoverished.. But -

“just off shore the shallow. coastal
continental shelf teems with cod,
halibut,-prawns, lobsters and edi-
bleeels.. © °
Brown says the $200,000, 41-
foot .glass-fibre boat, funded by
conations: from.’ B.C. fishermen

-3.days only.
April .28, 29,

and supporting companies,
organizations and individuals, will
be flexibly equipped to accommo-
date all types of fishing’ technique.
“The traditional fishing there is
dragging a nct along the bottom.
This prototype vessel is completely
convertible from a dragger and
long-liner to gill. netting, trolling
and trap fishing. They can experi-
ment with them. The efficient ones
they can use.”’
' Brown says the single fishing
boat could .support the entire
village. .
With that thought forefront: in
his mind, he puts in up to'12 hours
daily, six days a week, working on

the vessel with the support of vol-

unteers. The boat is nearing com:
pletion but still awaits installation
of an engine, a hydraulic steering
set, fishing gear, hydraulic drum

drive, drums and winches, masts,

boom, rigging and anchor winch.

The seed for the idea to build a

po

“ All weather coats |
— year round wear in

‘fashion

1

See also our rack. of.

colours and fabrics —

ae

specially reduced

spring fashions

~ QRDPARK ROYAL SOUH! 922-10

boat for the people of San Juan
came to Brown and some fellow
United Fishermen and = Allied
Workers Union: (UFAWU) mates
when they saw a TV clip on farm-
ers working to help farmers in
Nicaragua,

They visited the village in the
fall of ’86 to repair boats. But they
quickly found their tools and skills

. made void in the absence of mate-

tials to work with. ‘You couldn't

. even get a bag of nails,"' he said.

On return a commititce was
struck to launch the boat project.

Community goodwill has kept
the project afloat ever since Vic-
toria fisherman Scotty Neish kick-
ed in $1,000 to start a vessel con-
struction fund.

As part of the fund-raising cf-
fort, fishermen donated salmon
which was canned and sold
through Tools For Peace, Smoked
Sockeye salmon sides were sold.
The Squamish band has donated

‘the use. of the land, electricity,

trucks and forklifts at the Mos-
guito Creck marina, where the
boat is currently
assembly work. Lynnterm
fongshoremen donated the tumber
for the shed housing the boat. :
‘To donate to the project write
the Nicaraguan Boat Project, 11114
Drive, Vancouver c/o UFAWU. :

located for

Be tax
smart
in ‘88

“NEWS photo Mike Wakeslisid

THE NORTH Shore Optimist Club recently donated a spotlight for the
fishing boat being built by Al Brown and friends in North Vancouver for.
the village of San ‘Juan Del Sur in Nicaragua.- Left, Optimist members
Anita Goldring and right, Bob Robinson, present Brown with the fixture.