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A Boat with a Cause

By: Miriam Mannak
 
The Whisper Boat Building Academy is a one of a kind initiative. And it’s not only because it is the only boat building training facility in the country that is situated in a township.

Despite the fact that 15 or so teenagers occupy the workshop, it is overwhelmingly quiet in the Whisper Boat Building Academy in Khayelitsha. The only sound penetrating the silence is the rubbing on cloth against a shiny surface. The youngsters, all dressed in white overalls, are frantically polishing and cleaning what seems to be the mould of a boat. No chatting, no laughing, no giggling – not even a whisper. Odd? Not really. The boat builders are deaf.

Situated in South Africa’s second largest township, the Whisper Boat Building Academy was established by Belgian-born Peter Jacops in 2003, five years after he visited Cape Town for the first time as a European Union marine surveyor.

“When I settled down in Cape Town, I became more and more interested by the boat building industry – which was booming but at the same time struggling with a shortage of skilled boat builders,” Jacops says. “This made me think.”

It did not take long before the idea was born to set up a boat building training facility. Although one of the main objectives was to provide the industry with much needed skills, Jacops wanted to do more than just that.

“One of my ideas was to involve members of previously disadvantaged communities – especially people with a disability. Disabled people often end up weaving baskets or welding braais when offered a job. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, but to me it’s not enough. A handicap should not prevent someone from obtaining a real skill that is crucial to the economy.”

Initially, the Academy started in a shed in Tokai, but Jacops soon ran out of space. “We teamed up with Noluthando School for the Deaf in Khayelitsha, which allowed us to use their premises in return for our training students who were interested in becoming boat builders.”

Whisper Boats compromises two training facilities: Khayelitsha and Paardeneiland. At Khayelitsha, students are taught the basics of boat building. This part of the training programme takes one or two years, depending on the student.

When a student is ready, he or she moves on to the Academy’s second workshop in Paardeneiland. “Here, we involve them in the more industrial boat building processes, “Jacops explains. “In both facilities, the students are trained by professional teachers who have plenty of experience in the boat building industry.”

Raymond Alfonso from Bellville has been a teacher at Whisper Boat Building Academy for the past two years. All in all he has been working in the boat building industry for the past decade. “I am loving this job, to train youngsters to become professionals. The youngest one is about 16 and the oldest 23. We train both boys and girls. Yes there is a huge demand for boat builders and the industry will grow even further as everyone seems to be wanting a boat these days.”

I ask both Alfonso and Jacops about the biggest challenge. Without thinking too long, Jacops replies: “That would be working with people who do not hear or speak, and only use sign language for communication. Although I have completed a sign language course, communication between me and the student limited.”

Interestingly enough, the language barrier does not pose any major problems. “We got into the habit of showing our student step by step on how we want to have things done,” Jacops explains. “They are very quick learners and things up instantly. We only have to explain things once. What’s interesting is that certain technical boat building terms do not exist in sign language. We literally had to invent the words.”

Apart from that, the process of getting the project off the ground was by far not easy. “We had no capital,” Jacops recalls. “Luckily I had some contacts in the Netherlands, among them companies that supply boat building equipment, parts and other materials. They provided us with our first boat mould.”

Luck struck twice in a row as before the mould arrived in Cape Town, Whisper Boats got its very first order from the Netherlands. “This enabled me to pay back what I owed my contacts immediately,” Jacops said proudly.

Not too long afterwards, Jacops was given a grant by the Social Department. “This grant kept us going as it enabled us to purchase more tools and a bakkie. Look, we are not making profit, as technically we are an NGO and not a moneymaking entity. But we are breaking even, which is quite an achievement, as we never had a loan. We even were able to send two of our students to the Netherlands. The purpose was to show them how super yachts are being built. The smiles on their faces when they came back were priceless.”

Over the past years the Whisper Boat Building Academy has had quite a few orders, mostly from Europe and the United States. But it seems that the Academy’s star is on the rise in Cape Town too. “One of the local Dragon Boat Clubs just ordered a batch of dragon boats,” Jacops says. “It takes one week and a half for a team of 10 builders to complete one boat. We do not make a fortune out of it, but it is good practice for our students.”

I ask why the academy carries the name that it does. “We are a very silent company, not only because we train deaf people. We also build electrical engines for our motorboats,” Jacops says, showing me all kinds of very technical looking drawings. “This type of engine is much quieter than the normal engines. The noise produced by standard engines that run on petrol, is not only disturbing to people, but also to birds and other marine life.”

In November 2008, Whisper Boats delivered an electrical engine to the Two Oceans Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront. The device enables the aquarium’s staff to remove plastic and fishing lines in which seals in the harbor have become entangled.

According to Vincent Calder, technical manager of the Aquarium, approaching the animals can be tricky when there is a lot of noise involved. “The seals are often injured and stressed, and therefore more alert to danger. The trickiest part of getting these entanglements off is being able to get close without scaring off the seal. This engine is very quiet, which allows us to get close without being detected by the seal.”

Apart from building electrical engines, the Whisper Boat Building Academy was the first company in South Africa to launch a boat with a hybrid engine, “next year we will be building South Africa’s first solar powered motor boat,” Jacops smiles.

Meanwhile, the work of the Academy has not been left unnoticed by the authorities. Garth Strachan, Western Cape MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, has applauded the project as being one of a kind. “Peter provides Cape Town with much needed skills that will enable the boat building industry – which is very important to the economy of the Western Cape – to grow further. Meanwhile, he uplifts youngsters by teaching them a very important skill. I think it is fantastic what he does.”

Boat building has the potential to grow over the coming years, but it faces several obstacles.  Apart from a shortage of skilled boat builders, there are more problems.

“Further development is hampered by a lack of support by national government to nurture and stimulate the further growth of the industry,” says Strachan. “One of the main problems lies in the fact that Cape Town’s boat building companies do not have structural harbor space to launch and test their boats. These enterprises are basically subjected to the willingness of the port authorities to let them use the harbor. This is not efficient. We are now trying to convince the national government to make space available for the boat building industry.”

In the meantime, the youngsters are quietly going about their business.

For more information:
Whisper Boat Building Academy
www.wbba.co.za
087 805 9570
info@wbba.co.za

Article can be found in: “The Big Issue Magazine. 23 Jan-13 Feb 2009 #142 Vol 13