13′ 3″ Wee Lassie II

Mac McCarthy wrote Featherweight Boatbuilding in 1998 to assist others in the construction of the two designs most dear to him. He instructed at the Woodenboat School for many years, allowing many people the opportunity to build the canoe of their dreams under his watchful eye. The Wee Lassie may have started out as one of JH Rushton’s designs but Mac would tell you that it has gone through several variations to become what it is today. This is a great, lightweight solo canoe for a moderately sized person. The seat is mounted on cleats on the bottom of the hull and it is paddled with a double bladed kayak paddle. Think of this as an open kayak with no cockpit to deal with.

Our plans will provide you with the same canoe that Mac developed. Under agreement with Mac we lofted his designs into our marine CAD program and then developed the forms every 12″ instead of the variety of spacing that Mac used in his book. We think this is easier and more straightforward for the builder to work with.

If you are a little heavier or want to take your dog with you on occasion, you might consider the Wee Lassie II. This isn’t just an elongated Wee Lassie; it has a V-bottom shape all its own. Whereas the Wee Lassie is very maneuverable, the Wee Lassie II is strong tracking and stable enough to fish from.

Mac passed away in March 2011 but his book and designs live on. His sons continue to maintain his website at Feather Canoes.

About Our Kits

All of our kits are created as we get orders. Please email us (info@newfound.com) with your name, address, telephone number, and shipping address (if different) and we will email a quote that includes packaging and shipping costs. A “kit” can include everything or just certain items. If you just want strips, email us with the pertinent name and address, the design you are building and we will email a quote. We mill all of our strips here at our facility in New Hampshire to the highest standards after air drying the cedar. If you pick up at our shop, of course there is no shipping charge. We will shrink wrap your materials so that they are impervious to the weather. A kit can be picked up with a vehicle that you would normally use to transport your canoe or kayak.

What is in a kit?

The Wee Lassie or Wee Lassie II Kit Includes:

Plans, our Strip Building Construction Notes, CNC cut mold Forms that include Clamping Grooves for Stapleless Construction, a CD of Construction Pictures showing several canoes we have built, coved and Beaded 6′ to 10′ Northern White Cedar Strips, About 30% Full Length Western Red Cedar Strips, four aspen strips for accents, pre-milled Ash Outwales, Scuppered Ash Inwales, Ash Thwart or Yoke, Natural Cane/Ash Seat(s), Spanish cedar seat cleats, Seat Hardware, Ash Stem Laminations, Spanish cedar Deck Material, Fiberglass, Slow Cure, Low Viscosity, Non-Blushing Epoxy, Epoxy Application Supplies, and Varnish.

E-mail us with your complete address and the design you are interested in and we will quote shipping and packaging costs.

Pre-Kits

If you haven’t built a stripper before and aren’t sure about the process, you may want to get a Pre-Kit first. This includes “Cedar Strip Building” DVD, “Applying Fiberglassing” DVD, and Susan Van Leuven’s book, “The Illustrated Guide to Wood Strip Canoe Building“.