Traditional british boat type's

[mr dazzler]

Can anybody say if there is a traditional native british boat type or form?
I would like to build my own boat. Canadian type canoe immeadiately comes to mind, but I thought well that is indigenous to canada etc, the inuit have skin boat's, sampan in china, viking clinkers etc what is our traditional sort?

I want a boat that is:-

1/ stable
2/ light enough to transport safely on a car roofrack
3/ Big enough to carry 2 adults
4/ Workmanlike utilitarian character, not eye candy or flashy
5/ simple construction that could be done with just hand tools and modest material's
6/ suitable for lakes/estuaries/canals/calm rivers etc (not grade 5 or 6 white water )

Does any one have any sudgestion's please? There is so much information about boats and I am not naturaly a boat person. They scare me a litle (well the water does), but intrigue me enough to want to build and sail in one as well!!
cheers Jonathan

 

[Twoflower]

Corical is the first thing that springs to my mind .. and it's easy to build (so i've heard).

 

[tomtom]

As a direct comparisen to the Canadian Canoe I would say a Corical too!

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

They scare me a litle (well the water does), but intrigue me enough to want to build and sail in one as well!!
cheers Jonathan

Can't sail a coracle as it has no 'leeway' resistance, ie it will go sideways, be blown by the wind. What were the first boats in the norfolk broads ?

Crannogs were ancient settlements jutting out into lochs up here, maybe just built using log rafts ?

Nick

 

[John Fenna]

A currach (sp?) may suit you well - something like an oversized corracle that is normally rowed but with a lee-board fitted can be sailed.
St Brendan used one to travel to America......

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Aye, I just googled and that came up, probably came over to scots land with the Scots.

Nick

 

[Toddy]

Dory, lugger, log boats, clinker built dinghys, curraghs......all good. Go a for a dory though, you can make it from marine ply, it's stable, can be fitted with a drop down keel, a small outboard or a sail. Lightweight enough to go on a car but can carry a tremendous amount of stuff.
My Dad built boats and my brothers and I spent half our childhoods roaming every wee boatyard on the Clyde and the West Coast.

Plans :
http://www.smallsailboats.co.uk/dinghy/dinghy_files/misc.htm

We want photies

cheers,
Toddy

 

[philaw]

It just occured to me that the coracle is a bit like the British version of the birchbark canoe: made from natural materials, light enough to be carried by one man, suited to our small lakes and rivers as opposed to Canada's mighty and lengthy beasts. Not that this is remotely relevant to you, Dazzler! Sorry.

 

[mr dazzler]

Thankyou one and all for your helpful sudgestions . I forgot also to mention that my boat would need to be stable for my special needs boy to feel safe in, also paddleing as main propulsion, but then again hey you never know I might end up sailing if we got well into boat's!

I have looked at lots of boats, theres a bewildering variety. Not being a natural sailor it is very confusing knowing what to do.
I thought the coracle is welsh? I never knew they had them in Ireland as well. I like the curragh, also plank boats (clinker?) like the viking form with a sharp front. I like the plank punt types as well. But all in all skin on frame seems intuitively to be the route for me. Light weight, relitively quick and simple construction etc. I love the umiak form even though its not indigenous to Britain, it seems to my uneducated eye to be like a refined curragh. And it seems related to the sampan and dory forms as well. AND the structural method remins me of chair construction so that appeals as well, thin ash spindles, steam bent ribs and stuff. I think I have mostly everything I need to build a boat its just stepping off into the unknown as a new, totally new venture for me and my kids!
Again thankyou for posting I apreciate it

 

[mr dazzler]

The idea to create a boat has been festering away in me for about 23 years or so since I saw canvas and scrap wood one at a street art gallery in the old kent road (its builder actually sailed it on the thames). I have been looking at old photos from alska, greenland, and especially the dinghy sized siberian version of the umiak, and love the variety of forms and also the improvisational and pragmatic methods of building. I think mine will be about 10-12 foot long, flat bottom with straight vee side's, fir or spruce gunwhales, elm ash or oak stem and stern post's (depending on what I can get from firewood man), and fir keel; fir strakes, elm head board's (yes I have some little elm), oak thole pin's and sculling pins also, lash holes burnt in, lorry tarp skin, etc. The sculptor in me loves the form, also it is an excitying prospect to do the joinery by lashing simple dowel's or stub tennons rather than lots of compound angle mortice and tennon's. So this I think will be the boat for me, and I think it will tick all the boxe's
Again I would liketo thank one and all for your sudgestions and I will put some photos (as long as I can get pohto bucket to work )
Cheers Jonathan

 

[al21]

Hi Jonathan,

I know you've made your choice of boat, but thought you might find this link of interest.

http://arun.inthepast.org.uk/north_stoke_boat.htm

There's been much talk of a variety of boats being traditional in Britain, but I think the above specimen will shock people when they learn that canoes, and big ones at that, where used here.

Messing about in boats is great fun, I've been doing it for years. Thoroughly recommend it!

If the plan you outline in your previous message doesn't work out and you're still keen to try a self build project then a Selway Fisher Wren (canoe) could be a good place to start.

Best of luck,

Al

 

[Wayland]

You could try one of these....

 

[Tengu]

a small curragh, yes,

or a conservative dingy

a fourareen, perhaps? (diddy shetland version of longboat)

 

[British Red]

My personal suggestion would be a Drascombe Lugger although you would probably need a small trailer. stonkingly beautiful boats. Clinker built, gaff rigged, loose footed sails (no boom to clonk your offspring on the head), mizzen mast and mizzen sprit. Manageable single handed under sail, but equally at home with a 5hp outboard or oars.

http://www.drascombe.co.uk/lugger.html

Lovely boats, made and designed here and very traditional

Red

 

[tomtom]

My personal suggestion would be a Drascombe Lugger although you would probably need a small trailer. stonkingly beautiful boats. Clinker built, gaff rigged, loose footed sails (no boom to clonk your offspring on the head), mizzen mast and mizzen sprit. Manageable single handed under sail, but equally at home with a 5hp outboard or oars.

http://www.drascombe.co.uk/lugger.html

Lovely boats, made and designed here and very traditional

Red

The family of the chap who designed them still live in my village, as he did before he died, so there are a lot of them on the river. I don't own one but have sailed in a few, they really are very lovely boats.

 

[British Red]

I rather suspect I sailed them on the same river tomtom . I've never owned one either. But I rather hope I have never owned one "yet". As my Mum always says (who still sits in her window looking across to Dawlish Warren from Exmouth) "proper boats". I recall sailing them and similar small boats round the coast from the Exe to the Dart as a kid. Happy days.

Red

 

[swyn]

Hi Mr Dazzler.

Iain Oughtred has a book titled 'Clinker plywood boatbuilding' which is worth browsing. He is a well known and respected designer and builder of small wooden vessels. His plans are relatively simple for a competant person.

His 'Ness Yole' is a particular favourite and this model often comes up for sale in 'Classic Boat magazine' complete with trailer, sails, outboard etc.

Virtually all this type of small sail or oar powered vessel is heavily influenced by its bigger cousin which Wayland has shown (Sea Stallion). Their construction is basically un-changed from the Vikings original design. We are just lucky to have copper and bronze with which to fasten the timbers.
Alternatively, epoxy resin has taken fastening small dinghies to another level.

One alternative is one by Nigel Irens who designed a lovely dinghy to be assembled at home by an amateur. The kit is laser cut and depending on your skill, which will be on a vertical learning curve, will show in the end result!!

This kit came complete with everything you would ever need to assemble (apart from tools) It was a great success and much admired.

I hope this little bit of info helps.

Swyn.

PS. Try these.

www.smallsailboats.co.uk

www.classicmarine.co.uk

then go to the 'links' page and don't worry about tuberculosis!

PPS. I see that a 15' storm is for sale in; www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk
It's reference number is F163947.

 

[KIMBOKO]

A good starter although not a traditional British design would be a Tortoise from Harold Payson or similar design from Jim Michalak, both use 1/4inch ply and DIY shop wood. Small, cheap and easy to build, they can be rowed or sailed or powered. Try looking on the Duckworks website. A Tortoise can be built in a weekend from two sheets of 1/4inch ply plus DIY shop wood.

 

[mayfly]

Those Drascombe boats looks tremendous I've just spent ages surfing around reading about them. I want one! In my dreams I guess...