Clinker (boat building)

Clinker-built, also known as lapstrake-built,^[1][2] is a method of boat building in which the edges of longitudinal (lengthwise-running) hull planks overlap each other.

The technique originated in Northern Europe, with the first known examples using metal fastenings that join overlapped planks in c. 310-320 AD. It was employed by the Anglo-Saxons, Frisians, and Scandinavians in the early middle ages, and later in the Basque shipbuilding region where the Newport medieval ship was built. It was also used in cogs, the other major ship construction type found in Northern Europe in the latter part of the medieval period.

UNESCO named the Nordic clinker boat tradition to its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage on December 14, 2021, in the first approval of a joint Nordic application.^[3]