#bracera

[gohvar]

We’re very lucky in Vrboska to have such a thriving community of boat owners, enthusiastically keeping the heritage of the traditional wooden boats alive. Sadly that’s not so everywhere on the Adriatic coast, where generic fibreglass boats are now the norm. So, it’s good to have an exhibition of the next best thing – a display of meticulously-detailed working models by Luciano Keber.

Mediterranean Winds – traditional boats of the Adriatic

Mediterranean Winds – traditional boats of the Adriatic by Luciano Keber Open 14 August – 17 October, 2019 in the Hvar Arsenal

Luciano Keber is an experienced boatman, by day a captain in the Harbour Master’s office in Bakar, Rijeka. His passion, though, is traditional wooden boats, which he painstakingly reproduces at 1:10 scale (mostly) in most realistic detail. It pays to peer into every doorway of his boats, as there are some fun features lurking in there – the feet indicating a bunk in the fishing boat, and the toilet with girlie pinup calendar in the cabin of the sand excavator!

Exhibition

The bracera (or brazzera) used to be the most common type of cargo boat up and down the Adriatic. Originating in Dalmatia, they first appeared in Venetian records of 1556 as brazzera. The style of boat most likely originated on the island of Brač, which was then known as Brazza. It’s a solid boat design, very mobile and ideal for carrying loads of cargo in and out of smaller island ports. Smaller than trabakuls and peligs, they were cheaper and easier to build, and could get into less accessible places. By the 19th century, there were 800 bracera registered with the Austro-Hungarian fleet.

Bracera Graziosa

Bracera Graziosa

Bracera Barbera

Bracera Graziosa

Bracera Barbera

Bracera Barbera

The trabakul or trabaccolo was one of the workhorses of the Adriatic coastal sailing fleet. This was a typical Venetian boat design dating back to the early 1400s that became popular throughout the Adriatic. Trabakuls were slow but reliable, with blunt bows and sterns, and a good stowage capacity. They had two masts, a bowsprit, a rudder that extended well below the keel, and were around 20 metres long, and one third as wide in the beam. A typical crew would be 10-20 trabaccolos.During the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, trabakuls were equipped with cannon, as they tended to be targeted by pirates and other countries’ Navies.

Trabakul Složna Braća

Trabakul Teresa C.

Trabakul Složna Braća

Trabakul Teresa C.

Largest of all the cargo sailing boats in the eastern Adriatic were the peligs. Used mainly for fishing and cargo transportation in coastal areas, these two-masted ships averaged around 16-22 meters in length, and carried a crew of 5 or 6 sailors. At the end of the 19th century, larger peligs sailed as far as the Pacific Ocean. After World War II, many of the vessels were converted into motor sailers.

Pelig Divina Provvidenza – passara

Pelig Divina Provvidenza – rudder

Pelig Divina Provvidenza

Pelig Pinocchio

Pelig Divina Provvidenza – stern

Pelig Divina Provvidenza – bow

At the lower end of the scale in utility boats we have the sabjuners, which collected sand for construction. This is clearly a live-aboard boat as the cabin features a bunk and a toilet.

Sabjuner Marinka cabin

Sabjuner Marinka bow

Sabjuner Marinka stern

Sabjuner Marinka

For the smaller working boats, there are different names and styles in the northern part of the Adriatic from the Dalmatian boats. Here’s some of the varieties from around Istria and the Kvarner Gulf, batiels, bragocs, batanas and passaras.

Batiel – Duo Fratelli

Bragoc – Amico Mario

Batiel – Duo Fratelli

Bragoc – Amico Mario

Rovinj Batana

Pasara Jolanda

Further south in Dalmatia, leuts and gajetas, the most common fishing boats come in different forms depending on which island they’re from. For instance, the Betina boats tend to have a more rounded back end, while those from Korčula are more pointed.

Korčula Leut Fatamorgana

Korčula Leut Fatamorgana

Leut Bodulka

Betina gajeta

Leut Bodulka

Leut Šajeta

The exhibition is still on for another week, so you can still catch it!

More about the traditional boats of the Adriatic…

Wooden boats that would make even Noah jealous

Wikipedia: Barcera

Wikipedia Trabaccolo

Wikipedia Falkuša

Traditional boats on display in the Hvar Arsenal – models by Luciano Keber We're very lucky in Vrboska to have such a thriving community of boat owners, enthusiastically keeping the heritage of the traditional wooden boats alive.

[dasuedragondesigns]

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[rijekapizza]

Bracera

K8 – The location is nice even though I felt like I was in a wind tunnel but hey, it was a windy day. These things happen. They have this style of TRYING to be an Italian fancy place as a location named Bracera is wont to do, but you can sniff out that shit faster than Morg sniffs out cheap beer from a menu. Also it's more crowded than rush hour in Tokyo for some reason, and more people have gone through the passage in the hour that we sat there than I think EXIST in Rijeka. Feels like a glitch in the Matrix or some shit, but no one is really surprised the Croatian government refuses to invest money in a solid simulation. As for the pizza itself... They put olive oil on their margherita for some reason, which I think is a pretty nice touch because Italian food makes me cum in my pants. Also they bake the ever loving shit out of it so you get a block of charcoal and the crust is paper thin but otherwise it is delicious as fuck. Seriously, I could TASTE the charcoal, sitting there and wondering if I should do a Gordon Ramsay impression and storm off to see the chef and yell at him. I decided against it because I am not a prick. The portion sizes are okay, but you're essentially paying for some pizza sauce and olive oil on top of a fucking church Jesus wafer or whatever those things are called. I think I'd be happier to overpay the pizza if I actually got some substantial dough out of that shit. Guess the budget went straight to the fancy ingredient list instead of actual flour and yeast. Overall score is 5/10 because I know they can do better. No need to judge us for looking like 2 drunk homeless rejects, guys.

Morg - In a street passage nestled between two buildings that seem so close together people can lay down maybe one pair of socks out to dry between them lays a restaurant that takes up most of the aforementioned passage. We sat outside, it being a nice day and itching for the next cigarette. Despite being busy and having cyclists and people walking past almost constantly, the passage had real style to it, I liked it. The waiter rushed to us and after we told him we'll have to think about it (we finally settled on margherita and water, we never pick anything else, thinking about it is like an ongoing meme no one laughs at), he proceeded to forget all about us for far too long until we locked eyes with another waiter what felt like half an hour later. No bonus points on poured water either, just two glasses. I was surprised the waiter didn't spit directly in my face for good measure. The pizza itself had olive oil over it which immediately made it stand out with style, the crust itself was incinerated harder than Hitler’s Jewish grandma, but despite that the cheese and tomato sauce worked pretty deliciously together. Despite taking one entire thing for two of us and my partner hogging away a whole chunk, I feel even if I ate the whole thing it wouldn't have been big enough to satisfy my needs. The pizza was the same. Overall score 4/10 - I'd visit again for the nice location, but not for the service or the frankly average pizza.