CRAFTSMANSHIP Adrian Morgan
moves in mysterious ways, much the same as planks on a clinkerbuilt boat sometimes do.
Two heads are better? W
Provided they think the same way, finds Adrian
hen building a 17ft (5.2m) clinker dinghy, are four hands better than two? Well, yes. Are four hands faster than two? Yes, but not twice as fast. The advantages, however, outweigh any disadvantages, as we have found these past two weeks, Mattis and I, putting together the backbone of an Iain Oughtred Arctic Tern.
The disadvantage is that two heads sometimes have radically different ideas of how to achieve the same aim, and one pair of eyes working with one pair of hands, under the remote control of one head, can often coordinate things rather more efficiently. So, there’s Mattis at one end of the boat, and me at the
other, scratching our heads independently. Maybe we should do a side each, as they did in the old days; a practice that often lead to asymmetricality, not that you’d notice it. The eye can pick up the tiniest of nuances in a line, but I defy anyone to see an asymmetrical hull. I only noticed that Sally was slightly, er, squint when it came to marking the waterline.
OK, 21 inches down from the sheer on starboard; measure the same on port and... it’s an inch or two off. But who cares? Perfection is for the gods, which is why Muslim boatbuilders put in slight imperfections so as not to offend the divinity. Certainly, that is my excuse whenever I make a mistake. Except I was brought up Church of England. My god, perfect or not, certainly
Which brings me back to the boat we are building. After this long at the job, I know that it is futile to expect everything to go right. It’s a case of trying to get round a problem, often of one’s own making. And if the end result is a success, then you will have gained a little skill in the process. Personally, I rather enjoy getting out of tight corners. It’s like writing a column; you blether (old Scots) away, unaware of the direction you are taking, and suddenly break out into clear daylight. It all makes sense; just like the stem/centreline joint. Never having worked on a boat with anyone before, I am finding two-handed boatbuilding an enlightening experience. There is learning to be gained: viz, I have ground a curve on my low angle block plane which has revolutionised land bevelling.
And today I managed to impart some knowledge in return, which made me punch the air. “Two years at Stockholm boatbuilding school
and I never managed to get that right,” says Mattis. Mind you, I had just put a small split in a plank, so we have some way to go before I can call it quits. For, let’s face it, building a boat with another person is a form of mild competition. If he can make a fag-paper fit, I can make the joint invisible; if I can plane a gerald in two minutes, he’ll try it in one. It is good-natured, and helps to raise both our games. Well, mine at least. But underneath it all is the need to make a living at this business. It is admirable that there are enthusiastic builders with a little money behind them, turning out specimen pieces that take months (with unrealistic price tags). But if I have one aim, it is to make a boat that is affordable, comparing favourably in price to something nasty in plastic or even nastier in plywood, and which still turns a modest profit – ie simple, little, traditional clinker boats, built quickly and well.
“A practice that often led to asymmetricality, not that you’d notice”
Boatbuilders should not be an endangered species, at once revered and mourned for their scarcity. They should be plentiful as plumbers and without a shred of mystique. It is a pretty skilful business, admittedly, but not, as they say, rocket science, which my friend John, who is a rocket scientist, swears is not rocket science. “You’re a boatbuilder,“ he says. “You can build anything.”
CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2012 91
CHARLOTTE WATTERS
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