Homemade coracle mk2

[grip]

Been making a coracle . Made one a year or two back which was a heroic failure apart from the footage the kids got of me upside down in the river
The videos are poor but give a bit of an idea of things

 

[crosslandkelly]

Looks good. What did you cover it with?

 

[grip]

Heavy weight callico and bituminous emulsion

 

[nigelp]

Brilliant. I’ve got to re-skin mine.

 

[grip]

Brilliant. I’ve got to re-skin mine.

Is yours a stick construction or is it flat laths? I imagine it would be easier with the flat laths

 

[nigelp]

Ash laths. It is based on a Severn river coracle - very flat and quite large. It paddles OK with a forward pulling figure 8 stroke. I have some calico but need to sew a side piece on because it wasn’t the right width. I’ve been inspired by your post to sort that.

 

[grip]

Ash laths. It is based on a Severn river coracle - very flat and quite large. It paddles OK with a forward pulling figure 8 stroke. I have some calico but need to sew a side piece on because it wasn’t the right width. I’ve been inspired by your post to sort that. View attachment 67217View attachment 67218

Shes a beaut I fancy giving that type a go thanks for posting that.
https://www.whaleys-bradford.ltd.uk/ here is a place you can get heavy callico in different widths up to72" i wish i had found this earlier because i had to sew two widths together to cover mine.

 

[nigelp]

Thanks I’ll order the wider stuff and give the laths a paint in the mean time. I bought the laths at a steam rally. The chap who sold it was called ‘Peter Kenny‘ and he was a coracle maker and did run courses. I also joined the coracle society for a while. I may rejoin because it’s only a tenner.

 

[Mesquite]

Nicely built. ::

 

[nigelp]

Shes a beaut I fancy giving that type a go thanks for posting that.
https://www.whaleys-bradford.ltd.uk/ here is a place you can get heavy callico in different widths up to72" i wish i had found this earlier because i had to sew two widths together to cover mine.

I found this place also: https://www.empressmills.co.uk/calico-extra-wide

Cheaper and the width is massive. Medium weight but I got enough to double it if required. Whaleys wanted a silly price for postage. Express Mills was just £1.50.

 

[grip]

I found this place also: https://www.empressmills.co.uk/calico-extra-wide

Cheaper and the width is massive. Medium weight but I got enough to double it if required. Whaleys wanted a silly price for postage. Express Mills was just £1.50.

Nice one mate. Thanks for putting that up.

 

[nigelp]

No problem. I didn’t want to hog your thread but the postage from Walleys was very high. I may start a ‘coracle appreciation’ thread when I start sorting mine out.

 

[grip]

No problem. I didn’t want to hog your thread but the postage from Walleys was very high. I may start a ‘coracle appreciation’ thread when I start sorting mine out.

Great! Looking forward to seeing yours restored. I think there is alot to be appreciated,they are a superb little lightweight craft ideal for exploring quiet back waters. I'm about to start another so my son and l can run 5miles down our local river to the sea i would imagine we will be the first people to have done that run in a coracle.
The river runs through a big wood so we might do an overnighter on the run down, turn it into a mini adventure

 

[nigelp]

That sounds brilliant.

 

[Tony]

Nice stuff, Coracles are a big thing around here in west Wales. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your projects

 

[grip]

Got out this morning no drama's went really well a vast improvement on the one we built a couple of years ago. This is my son at the helm. We will have another in the slips by the end of the week and after a bit more practice we have plans for a little drift down river.

 

[nigelp]

Looks fantastic.

 

[grip]

Looks fantastic.

Thanks mate. Hows yours coming along?

 

[nigelp]

I have the fabric and also bought some 4mm ply to repair some of the laths that are ‘spongy’ and use for the gunwales. Also bought some natural heading to hold a few of laths in place where they overlap but wandered out of place. Will get it on some trestles in the garden next week and spend some time on it.

 

[nigelp]

Where abouts are you in the UK? I’m down towards the south coast below the New Forest.