Hull construction materials list

The hull of our 40' Gokstad replica will be made primarily from fir. The planking will be Douglas Fir, a large growing softwood native to the Pacific North West. In appearance, Douglas Fir - just fir for short - is very similar in appearance to a pine, which is common throughout the great northern arboreal belt spanning North America, Europe and Asia.

Many other wood species can be used for planking - we considered red cedar - but as we found a great source of Douglas Fir, the decision was easy in our case. Douglas Fir is a structurally stronger wood - although heavier - than the Western Red Cedar so we are quite happy with our fir.

The interior pieces such as "bites" (Old Norse term for cross members you can think of as deck beams), knees and floors will most probably be made from fir as well.

The Viking ships did not have elaborate decks. Obviously they needed some sort of footing to move around on and so built rudimentary decks low in the hull. These decks were not caulked and in some ships we know the planking was not even fastened.

In our case, we will basically use whatever we can lay our hands on for the decking. We are looking for donations and thus could end up with just about anything. Given what is most readily available on here on the coast, we will most likely end up with either fir or cedar. Cedar would be nice because it's lighter.

Here is the list of the boat lumber we have calculated to need:

Oars, rudder, spars are extra and not covered in the above materials list. We are doing the project in stages and the specifications for the remaining pieces of our puzzle will be worked out along the way.

We believe that the hull is the foundation piece of the whole project. The hull construction is what will make the project tangible to others and what our progress will be judged by. Logistically, it is also the most complicated because of the space required to build it, the skills involved and the fact that we have nothing really worthwhile to show for our efforts until the thing is launched (and proven to float).

In essence, launching the hull is pretty much a guarantee that the project will be a success. Even though we know that the hull is only about half the cost and effort on the way to a fully functional ship. (A good rule of thumb for most vessel construction projects).

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