Reverse Clinker Construction

[ancient kayaker]

While recently reading "Clinker Boatbuilding" by John Leather I found a brief description of reverse clinker construction, in which the planks are added from the sheer down, ending with the garboard. Some enthusiastic claims are made or reported by Leather.

I also found some refences on the internet but only a few fuzzy pictures which show the planks laid horizontally. However, Leather states the planks are laid from the transom to the sheer, so that the planks are diagonal, although no picture is provided.

Does anyone have any experience, images, or other information on this concept?

[TeddyDiver]

Interesting.. and never heard before either. Made a search an found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...ing_Traditions
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/con...ent=a728555675
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...345.x/abstract
Maybe she is the person to ask more.. http://www.southampton.ac.uk/archaeo...iles/blue.html

[waikikin]

The most common examples I've seen are on clinker built ski boats but only for the No. 1 plank & the garboard, the rest usually planked from No. 1 up.

[ancient kayaker]

]The description in Wiki is incorrect, it merely distinguishes between straight nailing and clenched nailing and misses the point about the order of the planks.

The claimed advantages and my comments are:

1. No standing water inside the hull - but lots of it outside?
2. For sailing, more resistance to leeway from hull - but more drag
3. Additional lifting force leading to reduced wetted surface - presumably this applies to diagonally planked hulls
4. Easier to clean out - I don't get this
5. Easier to see the planking lands doing during construction - I don't get this either

Frankly I think the idea has earned its obscurity, but I thought there might be something in it. Of course, I haven't owned or built a lapstrake boat so I don't have a practical perspective on it.

[peter radclyffe]

4, the dirt does not lodge so badly
5.you can see the edge fay to the last plank

[gonzo]

That would be like making repairs on a clinker. You have to slide the planks under the top one. It is very difficult and slow. SeaSkiffs and other boats had reverse planking on the bottom which made a shingle or stepped surface. It makes the boat have less resistance on a plane.

[Riccelli Yachts]

I've repaired a couple of boats with reversed laps, but these were powerboats and the reverse was only on the bottom planks. At the turn of the bilge they converted to the usual direction. The reason for the reverse lapped bottom is simple, it offers several "sheering" edges, to get the flow to separate cleanly and quickly. It makes for a faster boat with the same amount of power, compared to a carvel or conventionally lapped hull of similar shape.

Planking repairs or new construction would be the same, though reversed laps would likely be "planked backwards" too, if new construction. Repairs wouldn't make any difference, as a shutter plank, is a shutter plank and they all suck if you've never done one before. I remember my first and I hung the darn thing 5 or 6 times, before I got it right.

The reversed lap fishing sailing craft seen in the far east are but a natural arrangement of the planks, to help prevent water, pushing through the seams, in their way of looking at things.