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

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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. :

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“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.