Cut the top off drawings of boats (7)
I believe the answer is:
ketches
'drawings of boats' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'cut the top off' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'cut' could be 'etch' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'etch' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'kes' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for ketches that I've seen is " sailing vessels".)