Pegs for boat camping
Camping with a small open boat has been popular since the exploits of Victorian pioneer John ‘Rob Roy’ MacGregor who famously paddled his canoe a 1000 miles through Europe in the 1860s. Whether taking part in a sociable ‘raid’ or seeking solitude in the natural world of rivers, sea lochs and coast, boating with a tent is an irresistible lure for adventurous spirits. While some are equipped for sleeping and cooking onboard, others carry a lightweight tent or tarp to be pitched ashore.
If yours is a traditional wooden vessel then you might consider camping in similar style, for which hand-made wooden pegs are far preferable to the jagged plastic or bent metal types which often lie abandoned in the grass, waiting to snag bare feet. Not only are wooden pegs Earth-friendly and buoyant, the very sound of knocking them in is an authentic echo of the Victorian boat-camping experience.
Wooden pegs are cleft, not sawn, with long grain running from top to toe so they’ll stand up to a pounding from the mallet. Using the Laplander folding saw (see Classic Boat 398 August 2021) I cut a 10 x 5in log of hard shock-absorbent ash (2), subsequently cleaving lengthways along planes of medullary ray with the axe (3) to yield eight blanks (4). These blanks approximate to sectors of a circle, a shape preserved in the cross section of the peg where the surface nearest the bark becomes the peg’s thick rear edge, resisting the pull of the guy rope.
The peg’s classic profile, tapering to a point and rounding upwards from the beak to a blunt striking surface, echoes that favoured by the Romans on their travels 2000 years ago. This shape ensures the striking surface stands squarely above long grain extending the length of the peg, eliminating the risk of a miss-hit splitting o the beak. Having sketched in the profile I sawed a stop cut locating a notch for the guy rope (5).
Working cautiously towards the line, I trimmed the waste (6), being careful not to risk cleaving o the beak while working inside the notch. Rough surfaces were smoothed with the draw knife (7) before using a short blade (8) to chamfer corners and ease the edges of the notch to reduce wear on guy ropes. Three-stranded line, beech wood tensioners (see Classic Boat 390 December 2020) and a mallet complete the set (1).
Builders of traditional dinghies, canoes and kayaks might oer wooden pegs among accessories for cruising, while for exhibitors at traditional boat events, a set of wooden pegs would seem appropriate for the show tent.