Page 32 - Folk Boat Year Book 2022

David Gredley reports on a FB new build

Chris Barker is building a wooden Nordic Folkboat from scratch at the Lowestoft Boat
Building School. Chris’s wife Anne has kindly sent these photographs of the boat in
build. In my capacity as the class’s measurer, I have visited Chris in Lowestoft and
measured the boat in accordance with the first 3 of the 5 stages of measurement
required, compliant with NFIA Rule 1.57. Chris is in the progress of continuing the
boat’s construction for me to complete the 4th stage of measurement which is
planking the hull and fitting the deck beams.

In these photographs we see the boat’s oak backbone comprising the stem, wood
keel, stern post and transom all bolted on to the ballast keel. The backbone has been
rebated to receive the planks. From stem to stern the boat is divided into 15 sections
known as ‘stations’ each 500mm apart. At each station a mould or ‘frame’ is fixed on
top of the backbone perfectly vertical, stabilised and held in place by the cross pieces
which are tied onto the thick horizontal beam which is seen tied to the ceiling and is
known as the ‘strongback’.

It is useful to stretch a wire or string
through the moulds from stem to stern
running through a ‘bullseye’ on each mould
and to check it from time to time to ensure
that the moulds are perfectly in line.

A piano wire is tightly stretched on the
under surface of the strongback which is
lined up above the centreline of the boat.
To find the centreline during construction, a
plumb bob can then be dropped vertically
down from the wire. Also the strongback
can be marked with the key fore and aft
positions for example of the mast hole,
main bulkhead and the forward face of the
aft deck and the plumb bob used to locate
their exact positions.

32