Gripe (Tool)

A gripe is a simple form of clamp used in building a clinker boat, for temporarily holding the strake being fitted onto the one to which it will be attached. Because the strake is relatively thin and wide, the tool needs a long reach while requiring only a small movement, achieved by taking two pieces of dense timber, typically oak, each a little more than twice the widest width of the strake. A coach bolt is fitted through the middle of the two pieces and adjusted so the gripe fits onto the land, the joint between adjacent strakes, while admitting the point of a wedge between the free ends of the two parts of the gripe; the wedge is then tapped in so the gripe grips the land, using the bolt as a fulcrum.