Modern or Traditional?

Wooden Boatbuilding – Traditional and Modern

Timber can be seen as bundles of natural tube-like fibre (along the grain) which can be glued together in different ways to make up the different elements of a boat. We retain useful qualities of wood: the “feel”, beautiful appearance, resistance to fatigue, strength with low density, and insulation to heat and sound. The MODERN wooden boat combines plywood with raw timber, also often adding man-made fibre (mainly glass-fibre), with epoxy resins formulated for wood to hold it all together. Plywood is usually bought in as a factory-produced sheet material.

The fact is that problems with using a natural fibre still remain: wood swells and contracts with conditions, and needs to “breathe”. Glued structures tend to be rigid, moisture can be absorbed (and not get out), rot occur, and layers of wood work against each other to break down the glue joints between. Plywood edges are especially vulnerable to moisture – water penetrates deep and quick along the tube-like fibres inside but can't get out so easily!

The key to success is proper design with the use of the best surface coatings (epoxy resins & paint & glass fibre cloth) to prevent moisture reaching the wood which starts off dry. In TRADITIONAL boatbuilding by contrast, moisture content variation is accepted but but we make structures which can cope with, indeed make use of, dimensional change of the material.

“Modern” and “traditional” wooden boatbuilding are in fact distinct disciplines, though the former is a historical (even natural) development from the latter. Further, elements of both can appear in boats – the plywood deck on a traditional hull, for instance, where the properties of the sheet material can be a huge advantage over a traditional laid deck - while laminated stems and frames are often used with a traditionally-planked carvel (smooth-hulled) boat. It is worth noting that these “modern” elements on a traditional boat often break down sooner than the rest of the boat – for various reasons, often poor maintenance.

The two disciplines can be muddled because wooden boats, both traditional and modern, can be made using the same workshops (heated up for modern!), tools, and skills. And both methods can produce wooden boats with all the good qualities of wood – but, scratch the surface, and there are different worlds within!

Here are examples of both - above right is a Norfolk Punt and to the left a traditionally built canoe.