Norse-ish Longship

Is it possible to build a faering out of pine without steaming the wood? The curve of the bow and stern seems to be pretty extreme. What do you think about using a heat gun, as demonstrated here: http://personal.eunet.fi/pp/gsahv/bend/bend.htm ?

Actually, the angle seems to vary depending on the faering. How difficult do you think the one here: http://vestrusvikingships.vikingagevessels.org/faering.htm would be to build? Does anyone know of any free faering plans?

The boat doesn't have to be a Norse design, I just thought that would be best since they are designed to be rowed and sailed on the coast, and seem like they'd cut easily through the surf when launching from the beach.

Would it be better to build two identical 3-4 person boats?

 

Re: faering

Not sure about using modern tools for a faering.

But it's a pretty sturdy "traditional" boat. The site you gave shows a fairly common faering, but you could alter the dimensions slightly as necessary (to hold more crew, etc..), and the heat gun bending method in that other website looks like it might be useful for the bow.

Keep in mind, on a faering, the angles weren't always so extreme. You'd find some faerings with less curvature at the bow and stern, and some with more. This is your boat, so I'd suggest you use what methods you think will work best for you.

Pine is definately a good wood to use for this project, as it would be for a longship as well. Just take it step by step. Study the designs, and you'll start to see what will work for your needs.

One thing I can tell you, if you intend at all to take this boat into strong weather conditions, make sure the steerboard is secured to the hull as indicated in the drawings you'll see. However, in a pinch, you can lash an oar to the side of the hull to serve as a temporary replacement, should you lose the steerboard.

Above all, have fun building, and you should also have fun boating.


Good luck!

 

Faering (Færing) has normally two sets of oars, totally four oars.
Seksring has three sets
Åttring has four sets (totally eight , "åtte", oars).
The numbers really refers to how many "rooms" there are in the boat, this was a kind of deplacement measurment, but the numbers of oars seem to follow the size (naturally). It seems to be a mix of numbering oars (pairs) and "rooms":
http://home.c2i.net/rajenssen/umikalsen/sizesof.htm

A small faering can be 14 feet weighing 90 kg built of 10mm spruce.
So you would maybe want an "Åttring"?

Sorry I didn't read carefully enough the first time. Of course it would be a very rewarding project using your own trees. In Norway boats used to be built by fresh wood, not seasoned. Now it's more common to slice the wood into planks and let them dry before building. Then you have some time to read, think and design before you start

There are several tradition builders in Norway:
http://www.kailinde.no/ click on "Båttypene"
http://www.eldjarnbaat.no/

It seems like the boats from the northernmost parts of Norway are most popular today. 100 years ago every fjord would have their own style.

Some boats:
Åttring built by Gunnar Eldjarn:
http://www.arctandria.no/aktivitet/sommer-04/dap_attring/dap_attring.htm
Faering:
http://www.salta.no/albums.php?album=ro&now=1110360035
Åttring:
http://www.salta.no/albums.php?album=haeringen&now=1110360084
http://www.hildringstimen.no/hjemmesider/ravn.htm

Other links with pictures:
http://home.online.no/~hahaakon/nordland.htm

In US:
http://www.faeringdesigninc.com/

Simplified designs for ply and epoxy, look at Iain Oughtred for example
http://www.classicmarine.co.uk/boatlists/details.asp?Name=Skerrieskiff+17

 

WOW - 3D sculpting - pretty impressive.

Her er et bilde av Kai Linde i ferd med å klyve ut halsene til en nordlandsbåt av en stokk på gammelmåten. Som vi ser, er klyveplanet vridd for å få vridinga i bordet som skal til.

Here Kai Linde is in the process of splitting a log for the "neck" for a Nordlandsboat the oldfashioned way. As seen the "split" is twisted in order to achieve the necessary bend.

Maybe some day the "detachable" keel brigade will achieve this level of knowledge of their material.

Thanks for all the links Raggi_Thor

 

And the link please:

http://hildringstimen.no/fotoalbum/bildeinfo.asp?id=54

 

The local library here has a video from 1970-something, showing an old man building a lapstrake double ender with an axe (or adse?) and not much more. Quite impressive.

 

Those links are great! I found a translator at http://www.translation-guide.com/free_online_translators.php?from=Norwegian&to=English which misses a bunch of words but allows you to get the gist of what is going on if you don't speak Norwegian.