Building a coble

[Peerie Maa]

I have always had a fondness for cobles from the North East. When forumites introduced me to Freeship on threads in the Design page I was able to make a start.

I chose this coble from Cullercoats, painted in 1840 as my prototype.

She is a four streak coble, I decided to use the proportions of a 19 to 20 foot Sunderland coble for which drawings are available.
I lofted the planks, leaving out the keel and stem.

[Peerie Maa]

Cont.
The timber came from an apple tree that I grubbed out.

Compass timber.




When put through the saw.

Continued:

[Peerie Maa]

We need a boat yard.

The crook for the stem and stem knee


With the ram


Stem knee and ram erected.

Cont:

[Peerie Maa]

We need boat gripes

Plank boards and a breasthook

Garboards

Steamed and hung

Rising strakes cut

cont

[Peerie Maa]

Cont
and dry fitted

Rising strakes hung, starting to fit floors

Floor crooks


floors in

cont

[Peerie Maa]

continuing with the third strake


Ready for shear strakes

Steamed to shape.

[Peerie Maa]

continuing with the stern

ready to fit

and fitted

Gunwales on and turned for the skorvels

Stern view

cont:

[Peerie Maa]

next comes the breasthook and tack timbers

fitted

framing out complete

ready for the risers and thwarts

some of the standing knee crooks

sawn ready for fitting


to be continued

[Peerie Maa]

rudder shaped

floorboards being fitted

and copsea oars made

Iron work made and fitted

the tiller is the long summer tiller, made from a curved branch.
Tools put away, work space cleaned and coble, mast and all given a coat of oil.

Next task, building a stand for her.

[Lew Barrett]

Thank you Nick. A favorite holiday saw us in Robin Hood Bay and surrounding towns where cobbles were much in evidence. A lovely trip, that one, and great to see these boats take the ground and come off again with the rising tide. They make perfect sense in that place. Very clear images in my memory.

[Duncan Gibbs]

Super cool!! Nick, that's just bloody marvellous!

Soooo.... Will you be building the big one next?

[seanz]

Bravo. You are truly a model boat-builder.

[Peerie Maa]

Thank you Nick. A favorite holiday saw us in Robin Hood Bay and surrounding towns where cobbles were much in evidence. A lovely trip, that one, and great to see these boats take the ground and come off again with the rising tide. They make perfect sense in that place. Very clear images in my memory.

A lovely coast, did you see the boats at Flamborough?

Super cool!! Nick, that's just bloody marvellous!

Soooo.... Will you be building the big one next?

You just cannot get the wood you know

[TerryLL]

Extremely totally impressive!

[Bob Cleek]

Great job! Beautiful!

Sure you can get the wood! Just find a bigger apple tree!

[JimD]

I am amazed. Enthralled. Charmed.

[CapnJ2ds]

A noble coble!

[Lew Barrett]

Nick, I don't recall visiting Flamborough, which isn't exactly the same as saying I wasn't there. We did spend a lot of time in Yorkshire, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

[skaraborgcraft]

A lovely job Nick, great character and i love those sweeps. A much heavier boat than Peerie size for size. Im surprised there is not much written about the coble,one of the longest serving beach boats in Britain. Sometimes this kind of boatbuilding is hard to beat!

[P.L.Lenihan]

What a fantastic use for a knocked down apple tree and an even finer display of ancient boatbuilding skills/methods, in miniature.Very interesting,very impressive!

One question,if I may Nick;what exactly is "compass timber"? First time I think I've ever seen that term .



Cheers!

Peter

[robert666]

Nice model, how long did it take you? How long did you season the wood? What glue?

I hope my model turns out that good.

I know of a source for approx 22'' x 1.5'' larch boards - so no excuses for the fullsized build!

IIRC Compass timber is wood with curved grain for knees, breasthooks etc.

Robert.

[Breakaway]

Fantabulous!

Kevin

[Peerie Maa]

A lovely job Nick, great character and i love those sweeps. A much heavier boat than Peerie size for size. Im surprised there is not much written about the coble,one of the longest serving beach boats in Britain. Sometimes this kind of boatbuilding is hard to beat!

There was an excellent piece in the Model Shipwright mag, back in 1979, practically a definitive piece. They also have chapters in Edgar March Inshore Craft, McKee's Working Craft, and the Chatham Directory. The Model Shipwright nails it for me though. One difficulty is that they were never built from drawings, so the only plans available are from boats that were measured by historians or are in museum collections.

Nice model, how long did it take you? How long did you season the wood? What glue?

I hope my model turns out that good.

I know of a source for approx 22'' x 1.5'' larch boards - so no excuses for the fullsized build!

IIRC Compass timber is wood with curved grain for knees, breasthooks etc.

Robert.

Great job! Beautiful!

Sure you can get the wood! Just find a bigger apple tree!

Boats of that era were built out of quarter sawn oak. The Cullercoats prototype garboards would have been from a board over 2 foot wide with belly in the log. Anyway, much though I would love to (using ply for a smaller boat) I have too many boats as it is.

The tree seasoned for a couple of years, hence the spalting. Unfortunately the butt was not as big as I needed so I had to use oak for the shear strakes.
I used picture framers cyanoacrylate mitre glue, it gives enough time for adjustment, before using the activator to set it up.

The tool kit was:

• Band saw
• Belt sander for flattening the face that ran against the saw fence.
• Stanley block plane.
• Engineers calipers
• Really sharp pocket knife (Japanese Higonokami)
• a light chisel made from an old stainless steel one piece table knife (made for cutting clench nails between the lands of clinker planking but light enough to the hand for model making)
• ​Jewelers piercing saw.
• medium and very fine glass paper.

I lofted full size, then printed out to the scale of 1/16th or 3/4 " to a foot. Build time was about 5 days and ten evenings, not counting the lofting.

[Greeny]

Lovely stuff. I am Yorkshire born and remember these from when I wor a lad. Not much hope of seeing one round here so this was nice.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Cracker.

How did you get permission from the management.

[Peerie Maa]

Cracker.

How did you get permission from the management.

Thanks,
I only needed leave for 1 foot 3 inches, a lot easier than 18 foot worth of permission, and the apple looks lovely with the oiled finish

I now have to make an equally attractive stand. I have it planned, just have to see if I have the skill.

[Canoez]

I've got the perfect pilot.

[Sailor]

Chip or Dale? I thought they took Donald Duck's toy Sailboat, not Coble.

[PeterSibley]

Great job! Beautiful!

Sure you can get the wood! Just find a bigger apple tree!

Beat me to it !

Very ,very neat Nick ...well done !

[J. Dillon]

Beautiful job and exquisite workmanship.

Could you tell us about the long rudder also the oars ?
How about the rig etc. ?

JD

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

Will you be building the big one next?

You just cannot get the wood you know

Yeah, come on, Dunc -- wood doesn't just grow on trees, you know.

Great work, Nick.

[Peerie Maa]

Beautiful job and exquisite workmanship.

Could you tell us about the long rudder also the oars ?
How about the rig etc. ?

JD

The long rudder doubles as a dagger board. Because the boats work off of a flat sand beach they have a fine bow and flat stern. They always leave and return to the beach with the bow facing the waves, so they have a deep forefoot to hold them head to sea when backing in. This requires the deep rudder reaching forward under the boat to provide lateral area in the right place to balance the rig.
The rig is a single dipping lug, with the mast raked aft it sets in the middle of the boat. Some cobles carried a shorter winter mast which they set as a bowsprit with a jib. The really big cobles also rigged a mizzen mast. See Winslow Homer's art for cobles sailing.
The oars are peculiar to the cobles of the NW, including the Scottish salmon cobles, and to the Portland lerrets. I dont know much more about them, but you can see the similarities with Scandinavian oars.

[potomac]

I've often wondered if model building would satisfy some of the desire of boatbuilding, as well as the lust of possession without all the expense/time/effort/ space/ upkeep of a full-size build. Not sure if this did that for you, but it sure is pretty. Great work.

[Peerie Maa]

I've often wondered if model building would satisfy some of the desire of boatbuilding, as well as the lust of possession without all the expense/time/effort/ space/ upkeep of a full-size build. Not sure if this did that for you, but it sure is pretty. Great work.

I do have models at 1 foot to the foot scale as well , but none of them are cobles.

[akitchen]

Wonderful work! The apple wood is a nice touch. I'm so glad to see a resurgence of interest in the coble,
a truly marvelous craft in my biased opinion.

Coble lovers might be interested in my attempt at coble building. My model is based on "Eliza", a Flamborough coble
features in a number of books on british working craft. I built the model in preparation for a full size build (well
80%, 19 ft reduced from 24 ft).




Notice that the rudder is not traditional. It is a kick-up rudder designed to work in the rather shallow waters were I
sail. It remains to be seen how it will affect the balance. My wood is much less interesting: bass wood from the
local craft store. I'll probably use oak and douglas fir for the full sized version.

More info and pictures at:
http://www.cs.rit.edu/~atk/HOME/ Click on "Boats" then on "Coble".

Andrew

[Peerie Maa]

Wonderful work! The apple wood is a nice touch.

Nice work Andrew
I put the apple to one side for this project because I knew that it would have the fine grain for a model of this scale, and because of all of those lovely bends for the frames and knees.

Have you considered ballast and building in buoyancy? According to the Model Shipwright piece they used sand bags for ballast when sailing. I also do not think that your rudder will work unless you add a centre board. Not difficult with modern glues, but I don't think she will sail without.

[akitchen]

Yes, that miniature compass timber makes the difference with the extreme curvature of the frames. I had to
resort to laminating my frames, rather fussy work at that scale.

The rudder issue is a serious concern. My rudder's centre of resistance is further aft by about 18 inches. At best,
it may introduce a strong lee helm, although I believe (if my memory serves me correctly) cobles were prone to a
rather fierce weather helm in heavy conditions. In the worst case I may have to install a CB (and some cobles were
built with CBs, probably those used for racing mainly), but I'm leaving that to experimentation. I will be able to tweek
the sail balance by adjusting the angle of the mast, which will help a little. Coble fishermen had to deal with extreme
conditions that I will never meet, so I will have that advantage.

Ballast will be bags of lead shot or lead block, in all likelihood. I've used that approach in my current boat and it works
well. Buoyancy will be construction foam strapped under the thwarts supplemented by inflatable buoyancy bags, again
like my current boat. The green canvas bags hold the foam, ballast is under the bottom boards:


Andrew

Nice work Andrew
I put the apple to one side for this project because I knew that it would have the fine grain for a model of this scale, and because of all of those lovely bends for the frames and knees.

Have you considered ballast and building in buoyancy? According to the Model Shipwright piece they used sand bags for ballast when sailing. I also do not think that your rudder will work unless you add a centre board. Not difficult with modern glues, but I don't think she will sail without.

[Lew Barrett]

Gorgeous!

[J. Dillon]

They always leave and return to the beach with the bow facing the waves, so they have a deep forefoot to hold them head to sea when backing in. This requires the deep rudder reaching forward under the boat to provide lateral area in the right place to balance the rig.

Wow! that must have some timing to do that and not destroy the rudder.

Thanks all for the detailed images. It kind of inspires me to finish some of my three uncompletd models.

JD

[akitchen]

Wow! that must have some timing to do that and not destroy the rudder.
JD

They dropped the sail and mast, and lifted off the rudder some distance from shore before rowing
stern first onto the beach. The coble was definitely a deep sea sailer.

[Pharoah Phil]

I am very impressed by the models shown and described above.I have recently taken up model boat building as a retirement hobby but am not in the same league as this.
I grew up with cobbles and, in my younger years, owned one and skippered several others. I mainly worked from Bridlington harbour, but spent a memorable year working out of the North landing at Flamborough.
Over the years I travelled up and down the "cobble coast" ( broadly defined as from the Humber to Berwick on Tweed) and saw some beautiful cobbles (pronounced coble in the Northern part of the area.
Some of the builders I remember were: Baker Siddall and his son Percy who built their cobbles in Bow Street, Bridlington. Hargreaves (Arg) Hopwood of Flamborough. (Never met him but saw many of his buildings), Scarborough Marine, The Clarksons of Whitby ( one member of this family built cobbles just behind Spittal bridge) and Harrisons of Amble. I also saw the early stages of a build by a heritage group in the heritage centre in Seahouses and another similar project at Sunderland. All these people built "by eye" as no plans were used. Percy Siddall said that the eventual shape of any cobble was defined by the shaping of the "ram" at the very start of the build.
I have many memories and "snippets" of information which keep coming in to my mind (age problems) so if you need any information, I would be happy to try to help. (Please note that I am by no means the "definitive source" but I might be able to remember something to help).

[f4tct]

I am very impressed by the models shown and described above.I have recently taken up model boat building as a retirement hobby but am not in the same league as this.
I grew up with cobbles and, in my younger years, owned one and skippered several others. I mainly worked from Bridlington harbour, but spent a memorable year working out of the North landing at Flamborough.
Over the years I travelled up and down the "cobble coast" ( broadly defined as from the Humber to Berwick on Tweed) and saw some beautiful cobbles (pronounced coble in the Northern part of the area.
Some of the builders I remember were: Baker Siddall and his son Percy who built their cobbles in Bow Street, Bridlington. Hargreaves (Arg) Hopwood of Flamborough. (Never met him but saw many of his buildings), Scarborough Marine, The Clarksons of Whitby ( one member of this family built cobbles just behind Spittal bridge) and Harrisons of Amble. I also saw the early stages of a build by a heritage group in the heritage centre in Seahouses and another similar project at Sunderland. All these people built "by eye" as no plans were used. Percy Siddall said that the eventual shape of any cobble was defined by the shaping of the "ram" at the very start of the build.
I have many memories and "snippets" of information which keep coming in to my mind (age problems) so if you need any information, I would be happy to try to help. (Please note that I am by no means the "definitive source" but I might be able to remember something to help).

Hi, i wonder if you could give me any further details of the clarksons? Ive been trying to get information such as the relationship between Gordon and Billy, their years of building, and when they died?

Dan

[keyhavenpotterer]

The best, maybe definitive source for information on Coble's I've found is:-

Title	The English Coble: A Monograph Based on the Journals of the Late H. Oliver Hill Issue 30 of Maritime monographs and reports
Author	H. Oliver Hill
Editor	J. E. G. McKee
Publisher	National Maritime Museum, 1978 Its a great little book. Its for builders and those interested, not a coffee table book. Its well worth getting hold of, but it's a bit scarce. Explains reasons for the tumblehome and shape etc as well as all the other detail. The Shetland boats may have been fastest, but the East Coast Coble was the most evolved beach boat, for where it had to work from. Exceptionally clever in design for working from long shallow shelving beaches with waves coming in. Ed

[Peerie Maa]

The best, maybe definitive source for information on Coble's I've found is:-

Title	The English Coble: A Monograph Based on the Journals of the Late H. Oliver Hill Issue 30 of Maritime monographs and reports
Author	H. Oliver Hill
Editor	J. E. G. McKee
Publisher	National Maritime Museum, 1978 Its a great little book. Its for builders and those interested, not a coffee table book. Its well worth getting hold of, but it's a bit scarce. Explains reasons for the tumblehome and shape etc as well as all the other detail. The Shetland boats may have been fastest, but the East Coast Coble was the most evolved beach boat, for where it had to work from. Exceptionally clever in design for working from long shallow shelving beaches with waves coming in. Ed

Only from Amazon US at $335. Pity as I'd have liked to add it to my collection.

[Pharoah Phil]

Hi Dan, I'm affraid that I can't give you much information about the Clarksons as I knew more "of" them than about them if you know what I mean. For some reason I sort of thought or assumed that Billy and Gordon were brothers, but I may well be wrong. I know that one of them set up a building yard on the Bessingby Industrial Estate in Bridlington (possibly in Bells Yard) but I was away deep sea during that time and so lost touch with the fishing side for a number of years.
I know that Billy built a cobble called "Njord" for Leeds University in Whitby in 1966, and that Gordon built "Prosperity" for Emmersons of Flamborough in 1978. I also read somewhere that Gordon had died in the latter part of 2009 but that is about all that comes to mind which might be of help to you. Good luck with the research.
Regards Phil

[beernd]

WOW great stuff.
Followed by a dummy question,: How do you get those neatly sawn sections out of a crooked branch

[Peerie Maa]

WOW great stuff.
Followed by a dummy question,: How do you get those neatly sawn sections out of a crooked branch

It depends on the branch. With some I made the first cut with a hand saw and then flattened the cut face on the belt sander clamped to the bench as a bench sander. Then I ran them through the band saw with a fence set to the correct thickness to allow for the belt sander to remove the saw marks. With some branches I was able to take the first cut against the fence on the band saw to give me a surface to work from.

[beernd]

Thanks,

I will do some model boat building coming winter and I might just be able to lay my hands on some miniature grown oak knees (quersus robur IIRC).

[BrianM]

It looks as though you've cobbled that model together....

Nice work.

[Peerie Maa]

Thanks,

I will do some model boat building coming winter and I might just be able to lay my hands on some miniature grown oak knees (quersus robur IIRC).

Oak has quite a bold and in your face grain and figure. That is why I went for a fruit wood. Any fine grained small tree like holly or cherry or hedge row trees like hawthorn would be good. Any mature orchards near you that may want to thin out some thick old branches?