Posted by David Bamford on August 15, 2005 at 11:40:17 from 220.253.55.58 user David.
In Reply to: Re: Swallow anew? posted by Laurence Monkhouse on August 15, 2005 at 10:37:54:
Yes, Andy is not the only one to be fired up by the thought of a new 'Swallow'. I have to disagree with Laurence, though, over the authenticity of construction in ply with glued laps. Yes, I know it wasn't done that way in the twenties and thirties, but we have different expectations of boats now to what they did then. Clinker-built boats live best in a boathouse, permanently immersed. All the seams stay tight and the environment stays stable. Boats had a mnaximum life expectancy of about 20 years; when one stared to fall apart, it became a flower planter and you went to your boatbuilder and bought another one. Boats were more affordable because boatbuilders were so poorly paid. Timber was also more affordable than it is now. We now demand a much longer life because of the much greater cost of a properly-built clinker boat. TARS would also need to trail the new 'Swallow' all over the country so that the geatest number of people could get to sail in her. These are extremely severe operating conditions for a clinker-built boat. One of my friends has a lovely clinker-built 16 foot dinghy built [at great expense] by an excellent professional builder. It now has many splines inserted into the shrinkage splits in the planking. He is a very disappointed man. It may not be 'authentic', but plywood is much more tolerant of this sort of stress, and glued laps ensure that the boat does not leak and require a few hours 'taking up' before it can be used. Epoxy saturation of the hull ensures that the investment will last long after it has been paid for. In short, the kind of authenticity that Laurence would like to see used is fine in theory, but poorly compatable with the kind of usage that I believe a replica 'Swallow' is likely to get.
David.