wee lassie

So my blog is going to turn into a builders log for a little bit. I'm going to build another boat. I have already built about 5 boats, two were fantastic failures, one I gave away and two I still have and use. So why another? I have been on the quest for the perfect small boat and believe I found it in an 11.5 ft canoe called the Wee Lassie. The original was built by J. Henry Rushton in upstate New York in the late 1800's. The version I'll be building is based off of the book "Featherweight Boatbuilding" by Mac McCarthy. Although the original is a piece of American history, these days any small canoe is called a Wee Lassie, regardless of how closely it follows the original lines. Although Featherweight Boatbuilding describes how to build a strip built boat, but I'm going to make it a skin-on-frame since its the style of boat I have built in the past and the style I have the most experience in. I plan on building my Wee Lassie in our two story shed this winter. I will have to wait until the spring to finish it as the skin needs to be painted in warmer weather. I plan on using mostly pine that was cut from 2x4's and 1 inch stock. The stems will be made from plywood. My gunwales will be two strips of 1/3 inch by 1.5 inch strips that will be placed on the forms and then glued together. The oak ribs are 1/4 inch by 3/4 and were cut from 1/4 inch strips of red oak from Home Depot. The gunwales and stringers will be molded to a forms giving the boat its shape. After the shape of the boat is given on the forms, steam bent oak strips will be placed inside the boat to give it structural rigidity. Once everything gets lashed together, the forms will be removed leaving a frame ready for skinning.

Part one: To build my boat I will be cutting out cross section forms and placing them on a "strong back" to give the boat shape. To do this, I followed the patterns from the book and placed them on paper. Once on paper they are modified from the original patterns for strip building to the dimensions needed for skin on frame. The original pattern are made 1/4 inch smaller than the finished product to account for 1/4 inch thick strips of wood. A skin on frame on the other hand use 3/4 inch stringers. Once modified, the shape is transferred to plywood (in this case OSB). Today's job was to transfer the patterns to the stems and cutting everything out (the forms were transferred previously). Up next it to place the forms onto the strong backs. I'll include a picture or two as well.