Classic boats' charm mostly lies in the finest details. Tiny particulars grant the fair refinement peculiar to the ancient seafaring.But only real seamen can spot in each one of these details the practical utility of fittings making life and work at sea easier, and a boat safer.
The coaming, on the version of the sorrentine "gozzo" traditionally built at Marina di Alimuri, is a simple wooden rail, strong enough to resist the harshness of daily work at sea, but with no structural function, built around the cockpit, where nets or payloads, and "if God is pleased", taken fish, were carried. Its goal is to prevent the seawater coming from sprays over the sheerstrake or from nets and ropes just weighed on board, to flow into the hull, filling the bilge and loading the boat. The characteristic shape of the caulked deck, and the very rolling of the boat, make the water flow along the coaming and to the sides, where scuppers carved into the sheerstrake let the water out.
By now Mast'Antonio and Michele Cafiero's job is focused on small details of their lateen gozzo. The "Santa Maria del Lauro", caulked and painted, is an accomplished boat. But she's not ready to sail yet, and Mast'Antonio, used to complete a new boat in little more than six months, and now must content himself to work during Michele,'s free time, champs at the bit. The sea is there, two steps away.
