Blending Stitch-and-glue with clinker hulls

At Madeira Mar boatbuilding school we have developed a method blending stitch-and-glue with clinker (or lapstrake) hull. The mixed method makes it much easier to build a clinker-hull boat, requiring no advanced carpentry skills and resulting in strong, lightweight and handsome boats.

The Cormorant sailboat, a 16-foot mixed clinker hull designed by Madeira Mar, is built this way. The hull is assembled and clued upside down on its bulkheads. Screws hold planks in place. No planing of the overlapping planks is necessary, and the void is filled with epoxy putty.

This allows for thinner planks and offers more stiffnes, since every glued overlap works as a wood-epoxy longitudinal stringer. The bottom of the hull, on the other hand, is conventional v-bottom stitch-and-glue. This greatly reduces labor and complexity. Performance is improved, since lapstrake overlaps increase drag.

The Cormorant is inspired in traditional lapstrake sailing dinghies, but offers the advantages of modern wood-epoxy construction – large flotation compartments, lightweight construction and low maintenance. The balanced lug rig is perfect for this boar. Simple to build and sail, and very efficient at all points of sail.

Madeira Mar has designed other boats using the mixed stitch-and-glue clinker construction: the Right Whaler (a 19-foot sail and oar whaleboat) and the Seagull (a 9.3-foot nesting dinghy). As with most of our small sailboat plans, polytarp sails can be used with great efficiency. Check the images below: