Category: Traditional clinker

Clinker plans and boatbuilding

Nick Smith’s 16ft launch Louise project reaches seven planks a side

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

2009_032222ndmarch7and70029
2009_032222ndmarch7and70041 2009_032222ndmarch7and70038 2009_032222ndmarch7and70051
2009_032222ndmarch7and70054 2009_032222ndmarch7and70035
Motor launch Louise at seven planks
Hampshire-based and Devon-trained boatbuilder Nick Smith has sent us some more photos of his current project, Louise, which he’s currently planking with khaya mahogany. She’s  a 16ft loa, 6ft beam and will draw about 14in.
Here’s what he says:
‘Louise has seven planks per side now, so thats just over halfway planked up; she’ll have 12 per side when finished. The shape is forming now, and looking fair and well proportioned.

The photo showing me holding a pen illustrates the spiling process  – or ”spoilin”  as they say on the Isle of Wight. A template of thin ply or softwood is clamped to the last fitted plank, by means of  wooden clamps known as gripes, and what you see me doing is running a biro or sharp pencil along the top edge of the plank, thus copying the edge shape to the template (or ‘draw-by’ as we used to call them in South Devon.

The  widths for the new plank need to be transferred from the stem, moulds and transom to the template, giving five points that can be joined up with a flexible batten and drawn along, giving the new plank top edge shape. Because the planks on a clinker boat overlap by a margin (3/4in on this boat) the bottom edge just marked must have that 3/4 inch added to give the full width.

This process is difficult to explain in words but is satisfyingly simple when demonstrated, and is an example of what I call ‘workshop geometry’ .
With all information transferred the draw-by is taken off the boat and ‘spiled off’ onto the treewood awaiting cutting and machining.

Cheers,

Nick’

Thanks Nick! It’s great to see how the process is supposed to work.
Click here for posts mentioning Nick’s previous project, Lisa. If you don’t already know him, Nick comes from Devon and specialises in new builds in clinker and carvel for sail, motor and rowing power from 8ft to 28ft with a special emphasis on West Country style and design, and also takes on repairs and refits from 25ft to 50ft. He can be contacted by email at nick_smith_boatbuilder@yahoo.com and by phone on phone on 07786 693370.
For some photos of Nick’s boats at last year’s Beale Park Thames Boat Show, click here. Nick tells me he’s be at the show again this summer, so if you’re interested it might be wise to put the dates 5th-7th June in your diary…


27ft type K Montagu whaler

whaler-2

whaler-1 whaler-3

The Montagu type K whaler

The post announcing that Dick Wynne’s restored whaler Vancouver is up for sale has attracted quite a lot of attention in the last day or two, so I’ve decided to share these snaps from a copy of the 1937 Manual of Seamanship published by the Admiralty.

The rudder and centreboard seem remarkably small, don’t you think? By the way, the trysail in the upper photo is supposed to double as a spinnaker!

F B Cooke falls a little in love

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

cooke-23

Drawings of T Harrison Butler’s single-handed cruiser

Like many of us, F B Cooke was clearly a bit of a boat dreamer, and in the early 1920s seems to have fallen very much under the spell of  T Harrison Butler’s pretty Single-Handed Cruiser.

‘I, like many other sailing men, have long searched in vain for the ideal small single-hander, but I think I have found her, or rather her lines… She is a perfect love of a boat, and when my ship comes home I shall be tempted to have her built.’

The boat is just 18ft 6in in length. ‘The underwater lines suggest  weatherliness, and with a good length of keel she should be very steady on her helm.’

Again: ‘She strikes me as just the thing for knocking about in the estuaries and creeks of the East Coast at week-ends, whilst a trip up to Lowestoft would be quite within her capabilities in any ordinary summer weather. Dr Butler has given the boat a very snug sail plan, but in that I think he is right, for it is a mistake to over-canvas  a boat intended for single-handed work.’

I should explain that the boat in these drawings looks significantly bigger than 18ft 6in because H-B has drawn her with a Laws lifting cabin roof.

Did the Single-Handed Cruiser ever catch on? I’d very much like to know. And I can’t help thinking that an inexpensive small boat along these classic lines and as pretty as this one might be an interesting proposition for a boatbuilder to offer in wood or plastic in times like these.

cooke-22 cooke-22a cooke-23

cooke-25 cooke-27 cooke-31

cooke-33 cooke-35