Various ideas for complete boats have been put forward, but the design most favoured is that worked out between 1986 and 1989 by John Coates and Ted Wright, depicted below. The boat is shown as equal ended, with the bottom-structure as found in Ferriby Boat 1 (F1), but restored to a symmetrical plan. The sides are made up of three strakes each, the ends of which are shaped to fit the extensions of the keel-strake. The presence of ribs is deduced from certain blocks and slots surviving on the keel-strake. The location of the rib-ends through holes in flanges in the sheer-strakes is deduced from a later piece of boat-plank found nearby in 1984. So also is the positioning of thwarts protruding through cut-outs in the sides, these doubling as benches for paddlers. The ends of the timbers are clenched by girth-lashings taken through another cleat found on the underside of the keel-strake and it appears that an inserted board might have been added for rigidity and the lashings tightened by tourniquets. The foot of such a board would be lodged against a transverse ridge found on the keel-strake. There is, on F1, a single unexplained feature on the keel-strake amidships which could conceivably be a step for a mast.

Drawing showing boat in use as a passenger ferry (Illustration John Craig)