Background

Bangka are various native watercraft of the Philippines. These boats have seen plenty of use, ranging from fishing, transport, and tourist leisure. Embedded in culture and livelihood, almost anyone who has been near the shores of the Philippines would have seen one of them. Traditionally, they were built with wood, and used sails for locomotion. Nowadays, they're commonly fitted with internal combustion motors, usually discarded or recycled from older vehicles, and their hulls are transitioning from wood construction to fiberglass.

If you want to learn more, this article provides some good information: https://www.divescotty.com/underwater-blog/philippines-banca-boats.php

The Build

I'm a Filipino myself, so I thought it would be fun to try out building one of them in SimplePlanes, with a bit of an overpowered modern twist that wouldn't make sense for the types of people who own Bangka boats.

Electrically driven, built with new materials, fiberglass, aluminum, and that tiny bit of lithium that you better hope doesn't come into contact with water. Or any electronics, for the most part. Eh, they're sealed and marine-grade, so who cares. Modern electronics and multiple electrical appendages, which probably cost more than the whole boat itself, differentiate this thing from everyone else. It's like the Rolls-Royce of the bangka world. You have an enclosed cab area, which with the speed of this thing, you would need, a whole dashboard, a screen (which currently doesn't do much) and the spinny radar on top to seal the deal. You also have lights if you're staying in it overnight, but in SP they don't do much aside from glowing. It's got ridiculous performance, handling, and a bow thruster for that extra edge of controllability. For safety, you have a fire extinguisher (Halocarbon so you don't damage your expensive electronics), and a life preserver.

Electric Propulsion

Cockpit/Driver Cab

Electric Bow Thruster

Controls

Throttle - Main Throttle
Brake - (Requires AG1) Reverse or Nothing
Roll - Left/Right (Yaw)
Yaw - Bow Thruster "Crab" (Simulates combined use of the propeller and thruster)
VTOL - Yaw in place (Simulates combined use of the propeller and thruster)

Simulated use of rudder directing flow to the same as bow thruster to act as a stern thruster

Remarks

Got some easter eggs there. Spoiler, the SPCS Discord logo is on the green halon fire extinguisher on the third support pole. Give them a visit, it's a great community.

The engine is modeled too, but it's hard to see because of its location. The battery takes up some space, and is modeled too. I wanted to add some more details, but I didn't want to take up too much space and part count.

Also, special mention, thanks to Alisuchanka, who kickstarted my motivation to build this with their very own bangka.

lmao philippines 2077