Perahu Big and Small

ABDULLAH Muda has come a long way from the days when he made toy boats with coconut husks. In the half a century or so that he has been making boats for real since, he has crafted million-ringgit 65-footers that sail the seven seas.
He builds both conventional wooden sail boats and ornamental vessels, which boast genuine traditional craftsmanship.
And his clients come from far and wide - Singapore and Australia to Algeria, Denmark, England, Italy, and France, and even Canada and the US.
These days, however, the 60-something Abdullah seems to be coasting, but full retirement has to be put on hold for a while yet. He is still grooming a successor to take over his trade.
"Saya dah tua dah, takut bawa mati (I'm old already, fear I may take it to my grave)," he says, obviously taking pains to keep his Terengganu accent in check to enable us to understand him.
Abdullah's hope is his only son, Khairul Azwa or Wa, who is only now showing some interest in the family business.
"If he doesn't take over, who would? He's a bright boy... jumped class twice. I wanted to send him to South Korea to study boat-building before but he wasn't interested. I want to teach him to draw boats but there is no new project currently," Abdullah says.
A technology graduate of Universiti Sains Malaysia, Wa has quit his job and is spending more time at the workshop to "tolong sikit-sikit" (help out a little), according to Abdullah.
Wa is not only expected to take over the business but also to inject modernity into the operations.
In fact, Abdullah longs to see the day when his boats are fully designed on the computer, not like he does now, on pieces of paper.
"Kerja sekarang dah senang. Dulu, semua buat atas kertas. Sekarang dah ada komputer (work now is easy. Before, everything was done on pieces of paper. Now, there are computers)."
Unlike his son, Abdullah did not have much formal education. "God gave me this gift... but people nowadays with high education do not want to make boats. When I was in school, my friend, who wasn't schooling, was already making boats. I joined him until I got a job offer from Rida (now Mara). I left (the agency) in 1965 after working there for five years and started my own business."
He is currently completing a project for Putrajaya Corp, which has ordered 10 20-footer Payang and Kolek ornamental vessels that are to be used at the Putrajaya lake.
Abdullah is charging RM72,000 per boat, with RM10,000 of the cost going to the intricate carvings alone.
It took a long time to secure the contract, he says. "Pergi, balik Putrajaya... nak sign kontrak (to and fro... to sign contract)."
The instructions given to him were for boats "stail lama-lama (old style)."
He currently has eight craftsmen working on the boats.
The difference between the Payang and the Kolek is in the hull. The Payang's is straight, and the Kolek's crescent-shaped.
Abdullah also makes two other styles of traditional boats, the bigger Pinis and Bidor, which are simply known as Perahu Besar, or "big boats".
He still has a few more boats to complete for Putrajaya Corp. The first two have been delivered to Putrajaya, which were first launched into the Terengganu River, and then transferred at a landing point upstream onto lorries to be transported to the administrative capital.
Asked about his costs, Abdullah says a 65-footer, for example, requires some 60 tonnes of wood costing RM400,000 or more. "Senang-senang setengah juta harganya, itu baru harga kayu (easily half a million ringgit, that's just the cost of the wood)."
Cengal from Terengganu and Sumatra is the best wood for boat-making, he says.
"Foreigners buy my boats, Malaysians don't... our own people do not value local quality work," he laments.
"It's like buying clothes. We normally look at the labels and buy the foreign ones, thinking that they are better than the local ones."
His local customers also tend to bargain a lot, while the foreigners would just pay any price quoted, he adds.
Finding him was not too difficult as Abdullah is a local celebrity at Pulau Duyong, about two km from Kuala Terengganu. Just ask anyone for directions to his workshop, and chances are that person will even volunteer to lead you to the place personally.
Abdullah gets some 40 visitors daily, mostly foreign tourists as his workshop is on local tour itineraries.
He used to receive many more visitors, and by way of explanation, notes: "Ekonomi tak berapa baik (the economy is not very good)."
For someone who builds million-ringgit boats, Abdullah leads a simple life. He recalls having been asked how many Mercedes cars he owns. "People said with the kind of business I do, I should have at least three. I told them I own an old, battered car."
He also tells of a visit by some Singaporean boat-makers in the late 1980s, who came to press him to hike up the prices of his boats. They scolded him for offering his boats at a much lower price than theirs, Abdullah says.
"Cukup makan sudah lah (enough to eat is sufficient)," and that seems to sum up his philosophy in life.