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La Orejeta La Capitana arriving in Cariaco for restoration August 2022
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PROJECT # 2
Restoration of La Orejeta “La Capitana”
La Orejeta was the last and the smallest fishing vessel to sail the waters of Margarita, in the case of “La Capitana” it was acquired by the Museo Marino de Margarita in 1992.
It was seriously damaged and the Museum, lacking the funds to restore it, decided to retire it and someone offered to take it away to be used as firewood to cook, a crude reality many Venezuelans live by especially in smaller communities.
Fortunately we intervened in time to save it and we are slowly restoring it.
La Orejeta can be crewed by as little as one fisherman and we thought it made sense to restore it as a simple alternative to the more complex Piragua where at least 4 persons are needed to crew it.
The idea then is to have two different options of boat sizes but also to make sure we saved the last remaining Orejeta even if after its restoration it’s basically a new boat.
La Orejeta at display in the Marine Museum of Margarita
What is still to be done
La Orejeta: replacing its woodwork piece by piece to maintain its original shape
When “La Orejeta” was acquired by the Museum about 20 years ago it was in very bad shape, since it was only going to be exhibited in the Museum it was restored with regular wood and paint, but after years in the sun the wood basically disintegrates by only pressing it with hand pressure and it was ready to be given away.
The Orejeta is already undergoing restoration in the hands of our allies from @Astigolca at their riverside carpentry in Cariaco, state of Sucre.
The strategy, in order to preserve its original shape, has been to replace piece by piece each segment of La Orejeta starting with the new keel; The idea behind this method is preserving its original shape.