Age Old Skills

LIFETIME OF LESSONS

These boats were not the vessels of the wealthy, they were the boats that fed a family year after year.

The art of building and restoring a clinker built boat is one that is learnt over many years. Each one has the traits of the original builder with their own take on what their original owner required from it.

As we will go on to see, they vary in their shape, their heads and their transoms. Leading to a different method of planking up for each one.

However they all have a couple of things in common.

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Wood and Copper.

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Built from elm and oak in the main and fastened with copper rivets. Their design for their build has not changed since the Vikings. It produces a strong, longlasting carrying vessel.

With each plank steamed, shaped and fitted then a copper nail is banged through the overlap of the planks, to be fastened using a copper rivet placed over the tip of the nail then while holding onto the head of the nail, the rivet and nail are  hammered together to form a lifelong bond.

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