The journey of the only Chilean naval carpenter who works in the replica of the whaler San Juan, sunk 500 years ago

The lineage of the naval carpentry has four generations in the Chilean family Almonacid. They started at the beginning of the last century at the Puelche Caleta, of 200 inhabitants, located at the gates of Patagonia. They were going to look for coigüe and hazelnut wood to the mountain, cut it into a waning moon to enhance their quality, and built boats on the riverbank. They had no access to electricity so they worked with ax, azuela and brush. In that corner of southern Chile they did not let the artisanal trade die, certified today in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Registry. The post is carried today by Hugo Alonacid, 35 -year -old Naval Engineer, a native of Calbuco. The Spanish Albaola factory, dedicated to the recovery of the Basque maritime heritage, knew its work and invited it to the construction of the Nao San Juan replica, the 16th -century transoceanic sparching sunk in Canada in 1565. Last week the Chilean traveled to the port of passages (Gipuzkoa) to install one year and be a participant of the final phase of the final phase of the megaproject which has been manufactured for 11 years.

Hugo Alonacid remembers on the phone that years ago there was talk of the “last riverside carpenter” of the Los Lagos region. When he entered to study at the Universidad Austral, in addition to the technical and design part, he was taught the engineering necessary in the use of vessels with steel and fiber, but not in wood. That prompted him to focus on this material because he saw his danger of extinction. Together with their father they created the group of carpenters in the area, composed of former teachers and others younger, composed of a fortnight of members. In parallel, the National Cultural Heritage Service (Serpat) has highlighted the value of the artisanal work they do and there is no longer talk of a naval carpenter in the region, but of 200 registered.

Last year Chile was the guest of cultural honor at the Maritime Festival of Pasiaia, in the Basque Country, where the Albaola factory is located. The Serpat brought a delegation that included Almonacid Padre and son, who built a Chilota boat. Seeing how they worked, Xavier Agote, president of Albaola, stayed with the contact of the young Chilean and invited him this year to join as the first carpenter teacher of Ribera to the team that works in the replica of the San Juan Nao in an open museum, in view of whoever wants to see the advance of the feat. “He is the only Chilean of the team,” says Marco Tamayo, Regional Manager of Intangible Cultural Heritage (PCI) of the Los Lagos Region. “They had asked him to take one or two more, but the characteristics they ask are not easy to find. For the elderly a year of the country is not so easy,” he adds.

In the 70s they found the whale in Canadian things practically intact 500 years after their shipwreck. For about three decades they made an information lifting that concluded, among other things, that the boat had been built precisely in the Puerto Vasco de Pasiaia. It was then that Albaola, through an agreement with Canada and Unesco, decided to replicate the San Juan Nao, approximately 28 meters long. “They are building it with traditional techniques, with European oak wood. They made the templates and took them to the forest to cut them as they were done. Now they are manufacturing the anchors of more than two meters with are ancient and traditional techniques, the ends are of hemp vegetable fibers, the blacksmith’s workshop is responsible for the nails, it is all very handmade,” Almonacid points out.

The project is now in the calafateo stage -the cracks of cracks -where they place fibers between the tables outside. The idea is that next year the boat of the boat is ready to enter the sea. Then, the inner work will come, which includes making the mast and the candles. The ultimate goal is for a couple of years, already finished, to take the route of the Basque Country to Canada, the same one that sailed the original piece in 1500.

From Serpat they want to strengthen ties with Albaola, recognized in June by UNESCO as an example of good practices in the protection of underwater cultural heritage. Tamayo remarks that Almonacid is someone to support, and who expect it to be “the tip of the rise so that other carpenters can work or visit the Basque maritime factory, recognized worldwide.” This same week Serpat will participate in the XVII Meeting of Traditional Boats, which is held at the Ribeira dock, Galicia, to promote and promote maritime heritage and traditional fleet. As a sample of the Chilean naval carpentry, the delegation will teach the Chilota boat that manufactured Almonacid father and son, the same that opened the hackle of the San Juan Nao.