Wee Lassie
10'6" x 27" {3.2m x 68.5cm}
Maximum recommended capacity: 200lbs {91kg}
J. Henry Rushton was a New York boat builder during the last part of the 1800's. While many of his designs live on only in the history books, Rushton's Wee Lassie double paddle canoe has continued to be built, in various forms, through to this century, and is today considered one of his most iconic designs.
I built a skin-on-frame version for myself a number of years ago, but never got around to producing plans for her - in part because of her traditional style of construction. Looking for a quick project during a short break in the cold this winter, I thought I'd update my old Wee Lassie and create an easier to build model.
Our SOF version of the Wee Lassie utilizes just four marine plywood frames, and goes together very quickly indeed. At about 19lbs {9kg} she is easy for most anyone to carry around, and car topping is a breeze. The Wee Lassie is small enough to hang up inside an apartment, or under the eaves of a house, and she is perfect for exploring lazy rivers, hidden coves and backwaters or just tooling around the pond or lake. She makes a fine fishing craft as well - ready to go whenever you are.
She's stable, relaxed to use, goes where you want, and uses either a single or double paddle with equal ease.
Plans come with full sized patterns for all the plywood parts, plus a very well illustrated building guide that has complete instructions for everything you need to know to build the boat. Dimensions are in both metric and imperial measurements.
Frame Kits come with the building guide, all the plywood parts {of finest quality BS1088 Okoume marine plywood}, plus all the fabric (8oz polyester - not the clear vinyl) and artificial sinew you'll need to skin the hull.
And, of course, with either plans of kit, I am always happy to answer questions if you get stuck!
Build time, from plans, is 20-25 hours.
Order plans here
Plans do include how to skin with transparent vinyl, but this boat is ideally skinned with polyester fabric, and the building guide is geared towards this approach.
The elaborate decks/breasthooks are labor intensive, but entirely optional. Smaller, simple breasthooks are standard.
Check out the time-lapse construction video!
