Wee Rob Build in Massachusetts
My father and I would frequently chat about boatbuilding and sometimes he would say to me “it’s a hard thing to build a boat, but building a hundred boats is easy”.
My father never actually built 100 boats, so I would silently question where he gained the wisdom and authority to make this statement. But he did have a point. So much of the effort in building a single boat goes into the molds, jigs and templates needed, which are used one time when they could serve just as well for subsequent boats.
My plan (having made the appropriate arrangements with Mr. Oughtred) is to build several Wee Rob canoes in order to compare the open, decked and sailing versions. I am also using this project as an opportunity to experiment with some "LVP" (Low-Volume Production) techniques. Templates will be made for everything I need to cut, including the planking. This won’t go down the path of any use of CNC cutting; everything will be done using the usual range of hand and power tools only.
Beginning with the mold....Iain's plans for Wee Rob call for station molds only. I elected to add ribbands for several reasons. Ribbands would allow me to use a “wing” or guide on my block plane, Tom Hill-style, to more quickly and accurately cut the plank lands. Iain does reference the possibility of adding ribbands in his book on Clinker Plywood construction. I also have a somewhat half-baked idea to attempt a cold-molded Wee Rob someday, and I thought that I could repurpose the mold if that project ever comes to be.
Wee Rob Mold_1.jpg
block plan guide_3.jpg
block plan guide_4.jpg
The station molds were made full-sized and then notched for the ribbands at the plank lands, the width of the ribbands being the same ˝” as the plank laps. In hindsight, I probably wouldn’t do it this way again. Notching the station molds was time-consuming, and the “busyness” of all the ribbands, particularly at the stems, wasn’t helpful for cleaning up glue drips where the planks were bonded together. I have found that glue drips and globs are one of the few drawbacks of clinker plywood construction. They are incredibly tedious to clean up later, so anything that can be done to prevent them is worth doing. Using ribbands, but just deducting their thickness from the station molds and screwing them to the outside of the station molds, may have worked better and would certainly have been faster.
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