Copyright 2001-2007 inclusive McGowan Marine Design, Inc.

Wee Willy B. - 10' (3.05m) Strip Built Pack Canoe

This canoe design is inspired by the lovely pack canoes built by J.Henry Rushton over 120 years ago, especially the Wee Lassie model. Rushton built boats that met the needs of the likes of George Washington Sears, or "Nessmuk" as he was known in his outdoor adventure articles in Forest and Stream magazine. Nessmuk championed a minimalist "go-light brotherhood" style of camping, and his boats and gear were amazingly light.

Wee Willy B was named after a neighbour's son, and doesn't adhere to Nessmuk's "go-light brotherhood" weight restrictions, though the canoe should finish out at less than 30 lbs. (14 kg). Willy B's dad is a hunter, and is a big man, so he wanted a larger boat that could handle a fair amount of gear. It would be fair to say the boat was designed to a "pretty-light brotherhood" standard, and would be suitable for many of us western/northerners who really belong to the "eat-ourselves-into-an-early-grave brotherhood". This would also be a great canoe for a couple of kids to play around in all summer.

Wood/epoxy construction is of 1/4" (6 mm) strips, and is 'glassed inside and out. Local woods may be used for the planking (pine would be fine). Plans with full-size patterns are avaible for $60 Canadian, plus shipping.

Wee Willy B was designed using a fun and powerful program called TouchCAD. TouchCAD has a neat unfolding feature, and is a natural for laying out lapstrake or 'clinker' planks, or plywood panels for stitch-and-glue construction. I'm playing with a building method tentatively called "Strip Lap Construction" (explained in the above picture). I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that this is a common building technique, and that it has another name, as it seems very practical. Combined with software like TouchCAD, this could be a great way to build boats. Sorry no full-size plans... yet.