Construction
Options:
Cold moulding,
traditional wood,
canvas.

BEAVER is a strong, capable touring and camping canoe or  for two plus two small children. George Smith built this one! (see Pics)
Note, by using the end molds as patterns, buoyancy/valuables storage chambers with waterproof inspection ports may be built under the breast hooks at either end of the boat.

The framing pieces along the bottom of the boat are ‘floors’ intended to carry removable floor boards included in most of Iain's designs.  With well sed epoxy construction the need for floors and floor boards from a hull integrity point of view are unnecessary.

I am always impressed at boat shows, and on the river, or the bays and harbours where these very small ships are most used how passers by will ignore the beautiful large boats at the docks or sailing about with their crews aboard.   They so often turn their backs on the very large boats to admire the hand built plywood clinker and strip plank canoes and kayaks.  Its no surprise that these small lovingly made boats are sometimes described as  ''poor mens yachts'.

In size and weight Stickleback fits the niche of the very elegant and extremely portable Wee Lassie that became the signature boat of the Rushton Canoe Company at the start of the last century.  She too was  unusually small (3.2M) for a canoe and, for her day of  radically lightweight (11KG) lapstrake construction.   Stickleback is the same length, more or less at 3.26M, but even lighter at 9KG, making her small and light enough for very comfortable portaging. On the other hand her modern plywood epoxy composite construction will make her much more resistant to scrapes and bangs, and almost entirely maintenance free for years to come.

She will give great pleasure and earning in the building, whether from the scratch plans or a precut kit, and is the sort of small boat that gets handed down, with pride from generation, to generation.

3.26 m - 10' 8"
0.69 m - 2' 3"
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