BUILDING
A DIVE
BOAT This is story of a rather unique and successful experience I had in acquiring a dive boat in Batangas a few years ago. Anilao, Batangas is a popular dive area which is about 3 hours south of Manila. There are numerous small resorts and hundreds of free lance boatmen who ply their trade in motorized outrigger canoes called Bankas. The Anilao boatmen, known as Bankeros, are very well organized and have a fixed rate schedule for trips to the resorts and all the popular dive sites. As with most things in the Philippines the rates are somewhat negotiable. When you arrive at Anilao you pick a boat and then negotiate the fares before setting off so there are no surprises the next day when you settle your account. Needless to say this protracted haggling is a rotten way to start a weekend. Finding a good Bankero is a hit and miss proposition. What constitutes a good Bankero? First and foremost he must pay attention and follow your bubbles when you are under water. Most of the best dive sites in the Anilao area such as Liag Liag, Bahura and Mainit are subject to very strong currents. Even at slack tide the only way to dive these sites is to drift with the current, and it is not unusual to surface a kilometer or more away from your entry point. A good boatman will know the currents, follow your trail of bubbles, and have the boat positioned nearby when you surface. The second characteristic of a good Bankero is seamanship and local knowledge of the dive sites. Some of the Anilao dive sites such as Sepok Wall, Shark's Reef, and Bahura can be very boring and uneventful if you enter at the wrong place, but absolutely spectacular if you start at the right spot. Most Bankeros have never been SCUBA diving and a do not know the underwater terrain, but the experienced ones know just where to anchor for a given set of tide and current conditions. Finally, the Bankero and his crew much understand how to take care of your dive equipment, keeping it out of the sun and ensuring no salt water gets in the regulator when swapping tanks. As a kid our family vacationed on the Gulf of Mexico in Pensacola, FL where my mother was from and I can't remember when I didn't have a mask and fins. I was a huge fan of the 60s TV show Sea Hunt and in 1968 I learned to SCUBA dive in the swimming pool of the 111th St. YMCA in Chicago while still in high school. The Y had a large active SCUBA club and after taking the class I started assisting with classes and running the club compressor in the basement to refill tanks. During a visit to Pennecamp underwater park in the Florida keys I was hanging out in 20' of water, just using up the last of my air, when a school of fish swimming head-on towards me banked sideways into the sunlight tuning the dull dead coral scenery into a blazing wall of iridescent purple and yellow. My first though was, "Man I need a camera to record stuff like this!" Upon returning home I saved and bought a a Nikonos II 35mm underwater camera but in a twist of irony got hooked on photography to the point I sold my dive gear in 1970 to buy a pair of Nikon F cameras. That led to career in photography, then printing and other interests. I didn't start diving again until joining the Foreign service took me to the Philippines. Unable to find my YMCA certification I took a PADI course and started diving in Anilao in 1984 during my first four-year Philippine tour. I continued taking classes up to the Divemaster level and bought a new underwater camera, a Nikonos V with flash, during a trip to Hong Kong. When that assignment ended in 1987 I packed up the dive gear until I returned again in 1990. One of my work colleagues got certified in 1991 and we started diving together in Anilao. Our wives, then non-divers, came along and snorkeled while we were underwater. After trying a few different boats we started to use the Joey Boy, which was owned by Max Brucal. The Joey Boy was like most other dive Bankas; about 7 meters long and 1.5 meters at its widest point and driven by a hand forged stainless two-blade prop powered by a four cylinder Toyota car engine, complete with a four speed transmission shifted with a foot. The throttle consisted of a length of heavy nylon fishing line with a fish hook on the end which would be stuck to the side of the boat when cruising speed was reached. Max had all of the qualities of a good Bankero listed above, plus as it turned out he was one of the best boat builders in the area. He had built the Joey Boy -- named after his first born son -- by himself some 15 years earlier. Now Joey, the boat's namesake, was its first mate. His cousin Rene rounded out the crew. We came to appreciate Max's expertise as a seaman and dive guide. When not guiding divers Max fished with his boat, so his knowledge of the local waters and tides was exceptional. We'd suggest a dive itinerary and he'd rearrange it according to the best tide and current conditions. After the wives took SCUBA lessons and got certified the Joey Boy was too small for all the gear and eight SCUBA tanks required for four divers. At first we worked around the problem by renting a second boat, but soon we decided to build our own larger boat. But this created a new and different set of problems. How would we get it built? How would we store and manage it? We considered various arrangements such as loaning Max the money to build it and having him pay back the loan in installments, or building it ourselves and paying Max to take care of it, splitting any fees he earned on weekends we didn't use it. All of these arrangements had pitfalls and potential headaches. For instance, we knew of an ex-pat couple with a boat who were constantly haggling with their hired boatman over missing gas and equipment. They then came to the beach one weekend to find that their boat had mysteriously caught fire, burned and sunk, with the engine and all of the valuable fittings salvaged by unknown parties. Finally we hit on what we hoped would be an ideal solution for both ourselves and Max. In lieu of paying Max to manage the boat we'd own, we decided to build the boat and just give it outright to Max with the understanding that for the next three years -- the remained of our Philippine tour -- he'd take us anywhere we wanted, any time we wanted. All we would pay for is the gas. This was a highly unorthodox arrangement, and it took some time for my wife to get Max to understand what we wanted to do. When he smiled from ear to ear for the next day and a half we knew he liked the idea. Thus began the great Banka building adventure. We sat down with Max and sketched out the boat we wanted. The design was ambitious; a 12 meter boat with a 2 meter beam, with wide seating / walkways along both sides. Most importantly the boat would have plenty of freeboard so waves would not wash over the bow in heavy seas, and it would have storage space for as many as 30 SCUBA tanks. We needed that many tanks because diving with computers made three dives per day routine, and we wanted a boat in which 6 to 8 divers with 3 tanks apiece. The goal was to have a boat we could use for an entire day of diving to far away dive sites. We began a new ritual of giving Max huge wads of Pesos every time we came to the beach to dive to fund the construction of the new boat. Max traveled on the ferry to Mindoro -- an hour across the turbulent Verde Island Passage where the Pacific currents meet the South China Sea -- to buy the lumber for the boat. The most important component was the 10 meter-long keel which needed to be hewn from a single large log. Max took the keel to a boat builder in Batangas City who construct the basic hull for 32,000 pesos. Max never let on that a bunch of Americans were bankrolling the project; something which would have doubled the price. Once the basic hull was completed he towed it to his home near Mainit -- site of a natural hot spring -- were he build the superstructure, decking and bamboo outriggers. The painting of the boat was a subject of disagreement between Max and myself. All of the bankas in the area were painted with enamel paint, but I was convinced that two-part marine epoxy, though three times the cost of enamel, would be a far better choice due to its durability. Max had never worked with epoxy paint but in the end agreed to use it. The next task was to find an engine. The engine of choice for bankas at that time were four cylinder Toyota engines, which were readily available in the Philippines and used mainly to construct "Jeep" style home-built cars. Japan has very strict vehicle inspection laws which require the replacement of major components after two years. Most Japanese find it cheaper to simply by a new car. Rather than export hardly used cars and ruin its market for new cars, the clever Japanese chop the cars apart and sell the various component parts to developing countries. Max came to Manila by bus and then together we went to Quezon City with an acquaintance of mine who knew the owner of a used motor shop. We were led to a large warehouse with about 70 identical used four cylinder Toyota engine / transmissions packed together on the floor. Max and I climbed over the top of them, peering down the carburetor and removing the oil filler caps to try to gauge the condition of the engine based upon the amount of gunk and the condition of the cam shaft. We finally narrowed the choice to two engines. Max and I disagreed on which was best, but since he had a similar engine in his boat and would be the one responsible for keeping it running, I deferred to his judgment. The yard crew hoisted the engine out of the middle of the floor with a portable crane, replaced the missing distributor, hooked a bottle of gas to the fuel line and wheeled over a battery. After hot wiring the ignition coil they touched the hot lead of the battery to the started and the engine roared to life without the benefit of a muffler or any coolant. Max fiddled with the carburetor and the distributor timing a bit then nodded in satisfaction. We bought the engine and transmission for 5,500 pesos and put it on a skid in the back of my Pajero. It fit with about 10mm to spare. Next stop was the northern Manila suburb of Malabon, a boat building center and the source for all of the stainless steel tubes, plates, and shafting need for the drive train and the rudder, as well as the copper nails and other fittings needed for the finishing the boat. The heavy stainless shafting and tubing was loaded on my Pajero roof rack and we headed for Batangas, a four hour drive from Malabon. It was about 8 PM when we arrived and unloaded and after midnight by the time I returned to Manila. Over the next month or so each diving trip was also a supply mission. More paint on one trip, a car battery on the next. All told we spent about 80,000 pesos (about $2,400 at the prevailing exchange rate) building the boat. Max proved he was honest as well as hard working. He accounted for every centavo with receipts from vendors and hand written notations of jeepney fares, lunches and cigarettes. Per our agreement he did not charge for his labor. After all, he knew from the start he was building his own boat, and as a result he have the project his best effort. Finally in May 1991 the boat was finished. We had debated on what to call the boat but in the end let Max decide. He named it Joey Boy 2. The Joey Boy 2 exceeded our expectations. Compared to the original Joey Boy it was like the battleship New Jersey, with an upswept bow a meter above the water and wide walkways extending down the sides. Most diving bankas have narrow canoe-like sterns, but we had modeled the lines of the boat after the large square-backed fishing bankas. The square, slightly upswept stern complemented the upswept bow and gave the boat smooth and graceful lines. It was very spacious. We had designed a vertical tank storage area for 12 tanks between the engine and the passenger compartment and there was room for another 20 under the removable floor boards. Although we usually had 6 divers aboard the boat accommodated 8 with no problem. Despite a heavy load of people and equipment there was plenty of freeboard. Over the next three years the arrangement with Max also exceeded expectations and was nearly hassle free. We would send him a telegram telling him when we were coming to the beach (there were no phones) and he would be there waiting. We'd load-up, head for two day of hassle free diving and settle up for gas on Sunday. Our gas payments were always quite generous, and usually our guests would also give the crew a tip that nearly matched the standard bankero rates. We probably didn't save any money building the boat, but the lack of hassles and haggling was worth it. Not matter how harried I felt getting up at the crack of dawn, loading the car, and driving to the beach I became instantly relaxed once I got on the water. Needless to say Max was the envy of the other Bankeros in Anilao, both for the size and beauty of his new boat and the unique way he acquired it. Because Max knew the boat was his he had pride of ownership and took care of it, painting and maintaining it when necessary out of his own pocket. He was able to do this because our arrangement let him keep all money he earned on weekends we did not use the boat. Since we usually dove every other weekend Max did quite well; the Joey Boy 2 was by far the biggest and best designed dive boat on the beach and as a result was always in demand. Since Max also still had the original Joey Boy, which was now captained by its namesake, his family now had a double source of income. As it turned out we did make one miscalculation in our arrangement with Max. When striking the deal in 1991 it was anticipated we'd be leaving the Philippines in 1994, so we made the agreement for three years. However, both my colleague and myself both extended until 1995 and for the last year ended up paying more or less standard rates to use the boat. After all a deal was a deal and Max had held up his end of it with honor and integrity. It was a classic win-win situation which resulted from trust and a simple handshake. So if you are in the Philippines and want to have a banka built, or you just want a reliable Bankero when you dive in Anilao, take my advice and look for Max in the Joey Boy 2. You will not regret it.
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