W.I.L.D. Expeditions

This project started when Dave Knudsen and Geoff Briggs started talking about finding a way to help youth in the Northwest based on Dave's 40 years experience of running one of the best back country canoe camps in the world. Dave's father was from Denmark and Dave always dreamed of sailing a Viking ship. Geoff loves sailing and has always dreamed of building and sailing a ship as a way to work with youth. They started talking about building a Viking ship and they both got so excited people started calling them crazy.  About us

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." Johann Van Goethe

Youth The Viking ship is a great way to get youth excited about putting down the video games and going out for some real adventure. It has everything we need including the challenge of carrying all our supplies with us, the adventure of sailing in some of the most beautiful country in the world, seeing whales and other amazing wildlife, the chance to work as a team and plenty of opportunity for character building and leadership development.  Philosophy Mentoring

"Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity" Kahlil Gibran

Ship design and drawings by Carl Chamberlin of Basic Boats   Plans

Check out the twist in the plank (garboard) to the left! Carved from a 4" thick plank to 1 3/8" and then steamed for 1 1/2 hours and then bent into place.

The Wood

We are building using White Oak for the keel and stems. Primary Frames are White Oak and Black Locust. Intermediate frames are Fir. Planking is Alaskan Yellow Cedar.

The planks are put on Lapstrake style or Klinker, fastened by hand with rivets. The frames are then fitted to the planking. This is the Viking way of building, by planking first then fitting frames, the opposite of how modern carvel boats are constructed.

The planks are then trunneled to the frames. Trunnels are another word for treenails, basically a peg driven into a hole and secured with a wedge. This is a time tested methhod even used by the US Navy back when they had wooden ships.