engleski

The betinska gajeta – Successful multi-purpose design since 1745

The paper provides a qualitative and comparative study of the betinska gajeta, a Croatian traditional working sailboat. In order to comprehend the boat’s essential features, advantages and its role in Croatia’s maritime heritage, the analysis embraces an inter-disciplinary approach, taking into consideration the maritime, historical, sociological, and economic aspects that have intensely shaped the design of this vessel. The betinska gajeta, a 6-8 m long half-decked one-masted wooden workboat, is a multi-purpose vessel whose basic form was developed in Betina on Murter Island in 1750s and was modified over the centuries to respond to a number of requirements and challenges. Seaworthy and capable of sailing in any weather, heavy but easy to handle, robust but streamlined, having considerable transport capacity but a shallow draft enabling the approach to any coastal configuration, the betinska gajeta has been used for transport, fishing, recreation and other services, eventually becoming a multi-purpose boat, a recognizable symbol of the identity of Murter Island people and their traditional activities and skills, one of the rare Croatia’s traditional boats that is still regularly commissioned and built in the yards of Betina and Murter. Within the context of boatbuilding technique in general, the betinska gajeta presents a universal concept of a sustainable design: in addition to seaworthiness and quality construction, a successful hull design should be multi-functional, adaptable, driven by alternative means of propulsion, truly meeting the needs of the users and broader requirements, including prevailing meteorological and geomorphological features of the sailing area, tradition and socio-economic environment.

betinska gajeta; hull design; multi-purpose boat; Croatia's traditional boatbuilding

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