Model boat with outrigger, aba-odi.
The label on the model of this smaller boat has abbu odi. I have not found this name attested in the field or in the literature. It could correspond in size and usage to the smallish vaddhu doni used by subsistence fishermen, as described by Block (1992): 3.7 to 6.7 m in length, and used for ferrying, trolling and hand-lining. There is a long-standing debate about the existence, or not, of outrigger boats in the Maldives. Most authors (Koechlin, Maloney) say there were none. [The Horniman model has an outrigger, about which Manguin has the following to say:] The Horniman model suggests that the Maldives had outrigger boats. One outrigger only is not unheard of, but rare. The closest area, in Sri lanka, has plenty of dugouts with two outriggers. Apparently none with a single outrigger. (At least none in Kapitän, Gerhard, Grainge, Gerald and Devendra, Somasiri, 2009, Records of Traditional Watercraft from South and West Sri Lanka. Oxford, Archaeopress (Nautical Archaeology Society Monograph Series No. 2 / BAR International Series 1931)). This could be a model/play boat (rather than a boat model), which would explain the single outrigger. There are examples in Southeast Asia.
