Electric drills are displacing the laborious bow drills for preparing fastener holes. Chain saws are used to roughly shape large frames. Widespread use of the power planer could signal the end of the adze in Yemeni boatbuilding, although the planer was not used for the athwartship sides of the frames. Materials are both procured domestically and imported. Iron and copper for fasteners are imported, but village blacksmiths manufacture both the fasteners locally.
Yemeni shipwrights use a number of creative and unique methods in building their craft.
This method is in direct opposition to the typical boatbuilding practice of laying the keel first. Only near the end of construction, once the craft's shell has largely been completed, are keel, stem, and sternposts added. The traditional dhow trade and wooden boatbuilding were remnants of an antiquated, mercantile past unsuited, in the view of the socialist leadership, for the twentieth century. During this era, the Tihama, uninfluenced by the ideals of socialism, poor and isolated, and under the rule of a conservative, tribal-based government, changed little. Builders continued to create craft in towns, such as al-Luhayya, as they had for generations.