Thread: clinker hull

Cut a 44gal drum in half top to bottom and weld ends together.
Shape a pointy bit for one end and weld it on.
Use a 5 gal drum for an out rigger.

Marine ply mate. It's the only way to go. You can use exterior ply but you have to make sure you protect it well. You need something with waterproof glue - marine ply has good glue and no voids in the plys.

Clinker? Don't bother with it unless you want to. Plywood clinker is far better, and being a glued structure (the planks are glued together, they don't rely on a tight fit to keep the wet stuff out like real clinker), it's waterproof and solid.

However, if you just want a wee boat, why go to that much effort? Much as I love my plywood clinker boats, they are a building exercise as well as a good boat.

For just mucking about in the dam, with a free plan, exterior plywood and a weekend's work, you can build a Mouseboat by Gavin Atkins. I've built two and they are brilliant little boats designed by someone with a real flair and touch for design. Piccy attached.

Richard

so richard
were can i get a plan for a little ply clinker as i will be redundant in june so will have heaps of time up my sleave also is there a web site on mouse boats by gavin atkins
thanks
greg

Righto Greg,

I'm guessing you are new to this boat game ... and hence have no concept of the can of worms you are juggling

I'm also guessing you'd like a project.

Here's what I suggest.

This here is Gavin Atkins' website http://home.clara.net/gmatkin/freedes.htm
Download the Mouseboat plans and make one out of exterior ply - I made mine out of ply that cost $20 a sheet - marine ply is up around $90 (depending on what and where you buy) - just have a chat with a good timber merchant. The Mouseboat is a great little craft, very very capable and very easy to build. It'll give you some basic boat building for stuffall effort and cost, and get the missus on the water ... safely, they've been known to carry some very big blokes in rough water. There are others but few free plans work as well as this one.

Now, to the 'good boat'.

The web is awash with plans and websites. Start at Duck Flats for no other reason than they are Aussie and have a wide range of plans to look at. You'll soon realise that this choice is going to have more options than your average sixties lolly shop. But it's a good place to start.

For clinker, I highly recommend the work of Iain Oughtred - he doesn't have a website but his plans are at Duck Flats. He's the bloke who developed clinker plywood construction and his designs AND plans are among the best in the world. Most of his plans can be build tradional clinker as well (ie, with wooden planks, held together with rivets as opposed to epoxy and plywood).

David Payne is an Aussie and I can personally recommend his work as well - some of his plans are on the Duck Flats site and his own site seems to be down at the moment.

Our own Mik Storer designs very good craft, but they are not the clinker style - they are stitch and glue. His designs are fast and easy to build but offer superior performanc on the water ... and he's a hell of a nice bloke but don't tell him that because he embarresses easily. Hell, the PD racer we've been talking about on this site might be a good first project too instead of the Mouseboat.

There are a lot of other options out there though and it depends on what you want to do with the boat and why you want to build it. Personally, the thought of building a true clinker hull is something that has haunted me for so long, I'll do it one day, but the modern epoxy and plywood makes a far more useable craft that still has all the boating abilities that make clinker so lovely.

Richard

thanks richard
i lwent to your site and checked out your boats
i love your yellowtail its cool
greg

OMG, my website . It's only a decade or more out of date. Here's the current state of said Yellowtail and yes, she is a gorgeous boat. Might even get wet one day

She's plywood lapstrake - plywood clinker. Each plank is made out of marine ply (hoop pine in this case) and glued to the next with epoxy resin (West System or BoteCote). It's really the best way to go if you want this style of boat.







Richard

Hi Greg,

I'm looking at building one of these 7' clinker dinghies for a client shortly - pretty straight forward to make for someone with time on their hands

http://www.gartsideboats.com/7pram.php


regards,

AD

G'day Greg,
I built this little pram from plans bought from "BUILD A BOAT
P.O.Box 474
Brookvale 2100
PH 02 99384933
The boat is called " Ladybird " and is plan no 829
I found the plans to be very good and even included paterns for the planks.
Robert

When I was 12 I had the urge of building a boat, even when I had a proper rowing boat, was a member of a rowing boat club and could drive my neighbours launch anytime.

This is what I did. (two days work)

A) Take a very old corrugated iron roof sheet, 3m long
B) flatten all the corrugations with a rubber mallet on your driveway
C) shape the sheet into a U channel, the width of the bottom side must coincide width the with of your bottom side.
B) nail a square bit of timber for transom. Seal is achieved with a strip of Hessian bag soaked in paint.
C) cut out a narrow triangle some two feet long out of the bottom stern side in order to achieve a pointy end.
D) nail a piece of 2" by4" for stern, same sealing procedure as the transom.
E) rivet the bottom cut together.
F) nail a narrow strip of wood along the top edge of the boat so you don't cut your hands.
G) Jump in the water and start paddling.

thanks drifter thats a nice little boat ai that at boambee beach?
hey daddles this boat building stuff really is mind boggoling there are a lot of plans out there
i like the idea of a 1 or 2 sheet ply boat to start with and was looking at the lilljohn8? what is your opinion on this?
greg

I don't know it mate, but I think your best bet is the Mouseboat. Apart from there being a very active mouse community and email list, it was properly designed and works exceedingly well - that can't be said for most free plans out there and most one or two sheet boats were designed with an eye to getting the most out of your timber. Gav is a real designer who produced a very good boat. There are now many permutations and sizes and on the yahoo site, there are quite a few photos.

Here's a link to the yahoo group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mouseboats/

Richard

Ohhhhhhhhhh I do love a bit of fresh meat

Just t get you warmed up wander over to the MOTHER of all maritime links... scroll down and click on ANY of the links then click on ANY of the links that appear in the links... and confuse the hell out of your boatlust theres enough there to keep you busier than a tick on a blue healers bum

Then if you still want more come back and we will drive you near mad with the vast almost endless variety of designs out there

Good luck

thanks hanibal the canibal (sorry wild dingo )

ok richard i will check the mouse out

marc my dad made them when he grew up and use to talk about them when i was young

Now I feel OLD