A nice boat for somebody.

Tad Roberts · Oct 8, 2014

Marin said:
I learned about planking coves from a long-time shipwright on the Grand Banks owners forum. According to him, their purpose is purely cosmetic. On a wood boat with carvel (as opposed to lapstrake) planking on the hull, the planks will work slightly and eventually this working will crack the paint along the plank joints. As we all know from having seen this on carvel-planked wood boats, it's pretty ugly.

So a long, long time ago somebody came up with the idea of planing an angle on the longitudinal edges of the hull planks (or carving one after the planks were installed) and this V-groove would render the cracks in the paint that would inevitably appear either invisible or nearly so, since they would be down in the bottom of the groove.

Over time, the look became synoymous with higher-end wood boats. So when American Marine, for example, who coved the longitudinal joints in the hull planks on their Grand Banks line of boats, switched that line from wood to fiberglass in mid-1973, they wanted the glass boats to be as identical as possible to the wood boats. So Howard Abbey included plank coves in the hull molds he designed and built for the glass GBs.

It's a good story, but it's just that...a story.

Coving seams is styling, that's all. It's not synonymous with higher-end wood construction, but it is almost synonymous with wooden boats built in Asia and some from the West Coast of NA. You will not find any higher-end yachts built in northern Europe or the US East Coast with coved seams.

In carvel-planked higher-end yachts you will have to look long and hard to find the seams at all. In more pedestrian craft the seams are obvious, but there was never any intention to make something that looks like fiberglass. Topside seams are caulked and puttied before painting, the putty expands and contracts with the movement of the wood. Modern (hard) paint often cannot deal with this movement and it might crack after a few years. Planking seams tell stories about the guys who did the work originally, and maintenance along the way, and the weather currently.....It's the real thing and far more interesting than plain shiny plastic.

Some higher-end yachts from builders who would be horrified at coved seams......

Marin · Oct 8, 2014

Tad Roberts said:
It's a good story, but it's just that...a story.

Coving seams is styling, that's all. It's not synonymous with higher-end wood construction, but it is almost synonymous with wooden boats built in Asia and some from the West Coast of NA. You will not find any higher-end yachts built in northern Europe or the US East Coast with coved seams.

I guess by "higher end" I was thinking of the American Marine boats (Alaskan, Grand Banks) which are the boats I'm most familiar with. And the wood ones were, of course, built in Asia (Hong Kong). When the Grand Banks line was switched to fiberglass, the planking coves were retained (the Alaskan was never switched to fiberglass, unfortunately, or we we would have bought one

)

Fleming uses the cove lines in his boats and I've seen various deFevers and whatnot with them. Again, all boats built in Asia albeit out of glass.

But you're right. The wooden lobsterboats I've seen a bazillion of on Prince Edward Island and in Maine have no cove lines between the planks. For years there was an absolutely stunning 40' or so wooden yawl in the slip across from us that had been made in Germany in the 50s, I think. Not that many were made, and apparently every one of them is still going strong. It's owner kept it up perfectly and its wood hull looked like glass it was so perfect. No cove lines there.

dwhatty · Oct 8, 2014

Marin said:
For years there was an absolutely stunning 40' or so wooden yawl in the slip across from us that had been made in Germany in the 50s, I think. Not that many were made, and apparently every one of them is still going strong. It's owner kept it up perfectly and its wood hull looked like glass it was so perfect. No cove lines there.

You may be talking about Concordia yawls. Most of which were 39's but a few of which were 41's. Quite a number of them are around our area. Pretty boats with a cult following. Interesting that C. Raymond Hunt and other well known names were involved in their design.

I used to be somewhat anal about keeping the seams so they didn't show on our old wooden powerboat. A passerby one day exclaimed that she was beautiful and asked whether she was fiberglass. I wasn't sure whether it was an insult or a compliment.

Marin · Oct 8, 2014

dwhatty said:
You may be talking about Concordia yawls. Most of which were 39's but a few of which were 41's..

Small world dept. The yawl across from us for years was Irene, which is Concordia yawl #103, which I believe makes her the last one made. She was made in 1966. A Google images search turned up this shot of her on a page with her history. The boat has been named Irene since new. At the time the web page was put together, she'd had three owners.

Doug, a retired Northwest/Delta pilot and the third owner, had her for years in Bellingham. He finally sold her last year (or the year before) and replaced her with a fiberglass sloop that he bought in Maine, did a bit of sailing there, and then had trucked (I asasume) out to Bellingham.

A nice boat for somebody.

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