Clinker or Lapstrake For this method of construction, think Viking longships. The method of construction may well be over a thousand years old but is still as relevant today as it was during ‘Eric the Red’s’ day. The term ‘Lapstrake’ is derived from the process of overlapping individual planks so that the lower edge of the upper plank fits on a bevelled edge, called the ‘land’, on the top edge of the plank below it.
One of the most common types of modern yacht built in this style is the ever popular Nordic Folkboat and there are many dozens of original wooden clinker boats still sailing
around our coasts. So popular were the clinker boats that when the Scandinavian builders made the transition to moulding them in GRP, the clinker planking appearance was retained and simulated inside the two-part female mould to maintain the completely traditional look.
In addition to the Folkboat, this method of construction was also very common for the building of Royal Navy whalers and Cornish Pilot Gigs as the boats were relatively light for any given size and immensely strong. The secret of this type of constructions success was the overlapping plank edges which, when fastened
along the edges and to the steam- bent frames, made a strong and watertight plank seam without the need for gluing or caulking.
You will probably not be surveying too many vessels like the original, restored and preserved 75 foot Gokstad Viking ship (pictured), although there are still many replicas in Europe sailing today. We know of at least eight longships in the UK, the largest of which is around 40 feet in length. Four boats are based in Kent, one of which has recently be repaired and refitted by a local boatyard in Birdham and, as far as we are aware, the other four boats are still based in the Orkney and Shetland Islands.
Composite During the mid-nineteenth century, many shipbuilders around the country were experimenting with new ways of designing and building faster ships in order to take advantage of opportunities in the rapidly growing global trade in various products including wool, tea and spices from the Far East. One such very lucrative opportunity was in the wool trade between the UK and Australia and later in the tea trade with China. It therefore became imperative that sailing ships of the time were built lighter, stronger and faster than their competitors so that they were able to command higher prices for their cargoes if they were able to significantly reduce delivery times between ports to be the first ship home. Two sailing ships at that time became famous in their quest for speed and were able to reduce sea-times between ports by many weeks. The stories of Thermopylae and Cutty Sark are well known but what is probably less well known is that both Clipper ships were composite-built. Cutty Sark was built with a completely rivetted wrought-iron backbone, frames and deck beams with timber only used for the cladding of hull planking and deck. The topside planking and deck were constructed from teak and the bottom planking of rock-elm bolted to the iron framework. The inner hull planking or ‘ceiling’, was constructed of red pine, the main purpose of which was to protect the valuable cargo of Australian wool or China tea.
The Cornish Pilot Gig was, as its name suggests, built as a Pilot boat to guide sailing ships into harbour during the late 1800s and early 1900s. They now race each other from the dozens of Gig clubs around our coasts.
58 | The Report • December 2018 • Issue 86
In the latter years of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, racing yacht designers turned their attention to the benefits of building composite vessels and many large and famous yachts were successfully developed using this method. There were many big racing yachts built in the USA, the UK and Europe vying with each other to build and race the biggest and fastest yachts of the time and not least of these was the big ‘J’
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