How many strakes of planking

[shipman]

Looking for some general guidance as to how many strakes/width of planking would a 25 foot longboat (c1770) have?

At this point approximate plank width will do, thanks.

[Gregory]

I’m not in a good position to post links right now, but you might look at some logs for the Medway long boat, and the ModelExpo 18th Century long .

[Fritzlindsay]

Looking at a number of builds, the tendency seems to be having too many planks that are not broad enough.  While the drawing from RMG below is a launch rather than a long boat, it is indicative of the plank breadth.  The garboard is about 13 inches broad at midships and the other planking about 7.5" broad at midships.  I imagine this varied from boatyard to boatyard to some extent, but might be a good guide.

Fritz

 

Edited February 3 by Fritzlindsay

[Gregory]

Most of the builds are bound to kit materials.

 

Deviating from that requires research such as yours and sourcing and preparing other materials.

[wefalck]

Seven to ten strakes seem to be numbers commonly seen.

 

The number of strakes needed depends also on the radius of the bilge. A sharp bilge may require narrower planks than a wide rounded one. One tries to get away with as few strakes as the available material and the curvature permits. Wide strakes may require complex bending that is difficult.

[bruce d]

Hello Alex,

As wefalk says, seven to ten is common. I found one Spanish example with twelve but who knows if that was a reflection of available materials. 

The CAFModel longboat has ten (plus the elevated board above the rear sheets) and he based his design on, if I recall correctly, a monograph by Gérard Delacroix.  The image below has the right perspective to allow you to count them.

If I find any scantlings I'll post them but it looks like you have a free hand.

 

Bruce

 

[druxey]

7" to 10" would be a reasonable width.

[wefalck]

@druxey I was talking about seven to ten strakes not 7" to 10" plank width. 10" seems to be rather wide for a boat ...

[druxey]

Only the garboard, I think!

[shipman]

Thank you for your input, my friends.

Some of you may be aware I'm still in hospital since losing a leg at the end of November.

 

The big issue now is getting home to a house unprepared for the paraphernalia required to accommodate a wheelchair user.

Part of my problem is the result of collection hoarding (massive book collection, massive heavyweight coin collection, massive stash of mostly plastic aircraft/ship kits, a recent developing cycle collection....among other things). Now there's no room for me!

Eventually I hope these issues will be resolved and I have a little corner to park my bum!

 

I was waiting on delivery of 6 'Falconet' oared boat kits before the accident and can't wait to get started on them.

 

My questions relating to longboat strake planking are to help a keen modeller friend who had a handsome Christmas gift of the Artisania Latina 'Endeavour' longboat kit.

I suspect what appeals to him is a model which displays the charm of exposed wooden planking.

 

My investigations reveal that kit has totally inadequate plank stock to make a fair representation of such details.

Which means replacing the kit planking completely.

No doubt most of the kit can be improved, given some research, but the kit at least has the bones to proceed and make a fair resemblance of such a craft, remembering all the bones were FREE!

 

So, watch this space for my own build logs of the Falconet boats and news of my new life/adventure as an amputee!

EDIT 6/2/2025

Just to assure; the reason I was trying to find the number of strakes for a longboat (or any other small boat) would be to give points of references to allow the spilling of each plank to the form of a hull. Spilling rarely provides a plank with parallel sides, so asking for a plank width is irrelevant.

I've no personal experience of this, but the first 'keel' or 'Garboard' can be a mystery, due to its top edge having so much influence on subsequent plank profiles. I believe this is where a plank 'fan' become essential.

 

It doesn't matter if the project is scratch built or a kit, both can have their planks 'set' once the 'lines' or 'form' of the hull is established.

Edited February 6 by shipman

[Fritzlindsay]

On 2/3/2025 at 1:06 PM, Gregory said:

Most of the builds are bound to kit materials.

 

Deviating from that requires research such as yours and sourcing and preparing other materials.

You are probably correct Gregory, but the original post asked a specific question about the width of planks and made no mention of a kit.

Apologies if the response and drawing were inappropriate.

Fritz

[Gregory]

I was responding to your post that mentioned builds, i.e. kits.

 

On 2/3/2025 at 8:58 AM, Fritzlindsay said:

Looking at a number of builds......

I replied:

 

On 2/3/2025 at 1:06 PM, Gregory said:

Most of the builds are bound to kit materials.

 

The rest of my post suggested your response was indeed helpful.  I apologize if I didn't make that clear.

Edited February 6 by Gregory