This paper examines the maintenance of the knowledge and practice of Nordic clinker boat building in the setting of coastal Denmark, characterized as a form of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). We explore the 'working' dimension of these boats as small-scale fishing vessels and the risks to this ICH as expressed in various policy, social, and economic domains. The paper centres around a working boatyard on the west coast of North Jutland, incorporating perspectives from a network of wooden boat builders, and those working in coastal and maritime cultural heritage in Denmark and the wider Nordic region. Threats to the continuation of the heritage in its 'working' form are explored using responses from semi-structured interviews, as well as documents related to the pan-Nordic application for the inscription of Nordic Clinker Boat Traditions on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The case highlights the challenges specific to 'boatbuilding for industry' as a form of ICH and opens a discussion on which actors and institutions ought to be responsible for safeguarding, maintaining and cultivating its practice and renewal.