I have found this difficult

...  OK.  Problem number 1; I have four "pump up" clamps, no G clamps and a selection of rather pathetic, plastic "grips" 

The bit that I have found particularly difficult is holding the sheer plank ends in tension towards the centre of the boat in order to cut out the "wedge" that will produce the tumblehome.  Mark F Pettingill, in his book "Building Sweet Dream" - a two-sheet canoe along the same lines as the present Nessmuk - shows a mid-ships template that both sets the gunwale width and the tumblehome angle.  No such template exists for Nessmuk.

But you do need to set the 24" width.  In the end (too late really) I made a jig to rest on the gunwales mid-ships and to give me some sort of stability.  Without this, everything is just too mobile......

Anyway; I hope and expect that others may be able to tell me what I should have done differently but I have ended up having to cut the gores twice and thus have a 1-2mm gap between the plank ends....  Having tidied up as I went along, I am now going to have to create some wood-dust as a filler!

I still think that I shall have to take out a little more from the left-hand planks in this image - the stem nearest the camera is a bit over to the right to my eye. 

I know that the stem tops don't coincide - but I think that's a cutting error, rather than an alignment error.

And I shall just have to bite the bullet and buy some more clamps - aren't they a price?  C Clamps in the Laurentians, Canada, come from £2.18; one well-known builder's merchant here in the UK has them from £5.00!

Ho hum - here's the image;  a bit more filleting out of the Sheer planks tomorrow I suspect.

The puzzle deepens - and wise words....

I wrote to Simon Clements, the leader of the course shown in the link from the Pitts-Rivers Museum, asking if he knew the whereabouts of Phil Green, the designer of Nessmuk – the “Wee Yellow Canoe”..

Here’s his gracious reply….

“Dear Grizzle
 
Nice to hear from you. I had the very same problem before the PRM course here in Oxford. I knew Phil through canoeist magazine where I wrote several reviews of his canoe designs. In our correspondence he gave permission for me to use his design for courses, his suggested fee was the price of the plans per boat, approx £20. Time passed and later when I wanted to run the course  I was unable to contact him despite fairly exhaustive searches ...

I lost contact with Stuart and Becky Fisher who wrote canoeist magazine when they left for pastures new, they knew Phil very well and were my initial contact.
Phil often said his primary reason for doing the plans was to get "folks out on the water" so if you cannot get in contact with him perhaps do what I did and donate the price of the plans to a charity of your choice, preferably something riverine with young people.

I have often wondered what became of him.  I have built at least six of his boats from a variety of his plans and despite their simplicity I have always found them excellent. His "Sweet Dream" Canoe was developed and promoted in the States in a slightly modified form in a book called "Building Sweet Dream"( I forget the author) [MARC F PETTINGILL .... Other bookshops are available)   

and is the "big brother" of Nessmuk, and in my opinion one of the most practical and elegant solo open canoes ever.

Let me know if you do get in touch with him,?

Best wishes and happy paddling, if I can help in any way please let me know.
       Simon”

I replied:

Dear Simon,

Such a kind and helpful reply; would it be O.K. if I added it intact to the blog?  It all adds to the story and would, perhaps, go some way towards encouraging others who follow us to make a donation, too!

And he responded:

“Hi,

Absolutely, it is all about getting "folks on the water" it is an ideal boat for D of E projects,
Sea scouts and schools DT projects; so the more the merrier."

So – I’m still chasing the trail – anyone with any more information, please let me know.  Anyone with any more of the plans – likewise!

And if you decide to build one yourself – you know what to do for a build fee – at least for now :-)  and here’s some information from Simon Clements to be going on with.

“Hi,

I have just checked out your blog; the cracking along the stem cuts on the canoe are caused by starting at the base and working up to the gunwale.

Phil originally used two slip knotted strings to gradually draw the two side pieces together a little bit at a time, I have always done this dry and although it makes a horrific noise on occasion it does prevent those stem cracks...It's not called tortured ply for nothing...

Also you will only get a tumble home on the hull by cutting the wedge out of the side panels as per the plans. I have made several Nessmuk with less tumble home and they get progressively harder to paddle the wider they get.
Remember you are sitting on the bottom of the boat which means a short steep paddle stroke at the best of times. However if you go wide and maybe fit a deck, rudder and lee boards and a small bermuda sail these little boats sail like a terrier chases rats!

They are such good fun

S”

Progress - and a minor panic!

Sunday - day of rest.

The lawn's already cut so - time off for good behaviour and away to the garage!

Progress today has been 4 hours.

Cutting out - pretty straightforward with  laser-marker power saw for the straight bits and a powered jig-saw for the curves.  I'd have liked to do it all by hand but I'm not buying a pull saw for one job!

Watch-points (who says watch-points?).

Check and re-check the relationship of the blade to the bench - the ply slides around...

Cut the lines G-F       LAST - it makes the piece much easier to handle for the longest time.


So then I pushed the lower end of the piece out of the garage and doused both sides with boiling water....

 





It seemed like a good idea.....

Then I began to "roll up" the sheet towards me before tethering the bow and stern tips with a single cable tie.  Seemed like another good idea ( I couldn't find any string which is what the instructions call for) but I don't know whether it was a result of that, or the result of the three-ply, 4mm wood that I'm using, but this appeared (at both ends!).


I (very) rapidly found and stripped some copper cable and inserted "stop ties" medial (central) to each impending split - things seem to have stabilised!
 
I had tried to work my tie-holes from the initial bow-tie downwards (I have no idea why) - not a good idea; work from the "keel" towards the stem.

Life is made easier if you temporarily tether the cut ends of the  sheer-strakes (previous cut G - F).  Stops them thrashing around; my clamps weren't up to the job for this so I drilled a couple of holes near the upper and lower edges and used a cable tie in each place.

So - steady progress - but it IS a day of rest so I've stopped at bow and stern secured; one sheer-strake in place but not cut.

 

I need to ask my contact about the height of the sheer above the chine and the width of the boat at the gunwales - and hence the tumble-home.......



 

Wood and pencil...

When the wood came, I was a bit taken aback because it had two, large, workshop footprints on it.  Fortunately, they sanded off well enough but in the process I noticed a void between adjacent surface veneers about 14-20 cm long and 2 mm wide at the widest.

One phone call and two days after, a replacement turned up and I've just finished marking out.

Firstly - I am known to be able to measure twice and get it wrong on both occasions.  Secondly, I have just about mastered Metric measuring only to find that the plans are in Imperial....  Fortunately, much of my canoe-building / DIY house fixing time is spent in North America so, whilst I don't really enjoy eighths and sixteenths, conceptually I can cope.

Thirdly, the plans we have are scans of hand-drawn plans (still no takers for copyright but I found this link on line  to a Nessmuk building workshop at the Pitt-Rivers museum in Oxford.  Perhaps they could tell me about the copyright on the plans?) so some of the writing is a bit blurred.  I contacted  my distant helper who told me that dimension A - H is 14 and 1/8 inches.

The first mistake was not to notice that the left-hand edge of the plan drawing is in fact the mid-line of the sheet of ply.  Silly of me, but I did warn you about my measuring issues!!

I ended up laying masking tape along all the measuring lines and only marking the cutting lines on to the ply.  I don't know what finish I want for this boat yet so it's less sanding to remove the unwanted lines (and easier to remedy all my following errors!).

I used a piece of strip aluminium to bend a fair curve for the bow and stern - which meant I could transfer the curve from one to another - and drove dress-making pins (Shhhhh!) into the ply to bend a lightweight glass-fibre rod to make the curve H - E - H.

All this was done on the dining table -

Seriously need to borrow another Work-Mate for the cutting out - and find a nice, new jig-saw blade......

Maybe Monday if I'm very lucky.  Also need to install pulleys in the garage ceiling to store it from.

Getting started

I've heard about the little Nessmuk canoe, a 7' 2" boat made from a single sheet of  4mm marine ply, for some time.  A really helpful contact sent me a scan of the plans and building instructions and I have searched and searched on line for any trace of Phil Green designs so that I can pay a building royalty if needs be...

If you know of Mr Green, or his legitimate estate, please let me know and I'll be happy to enter discussions.

It seems that the canoe derives from the Sairy Gamp, a 9 foot long, ultra-lightweight canoe, built by J. Henry Rushton of Canton, New York, for George W Sears, a writer with the pen-name Nessmuk.  That canoe was cedar plank over ribs; the present incarnation will be stitch and tape.

So far, I have ordered a sheet of Gaboon 4mm Marine ply from Avon Plywood.  Delivery is due next week.....

























DO NOT CUT B - A or A - H.

After an e-conversation, Doug most helpfully added.....

"I would add, cut G to F and cut out the slim "triangle" G, H, E. (E to G is straight) (E to H has a curve).

From the photo you will see that the line E,  H, E is a curve intersecting the 3 points.

When bending the plywood the 2 G to F parts overlap to give you the top plank. Marry the G to E line and H to E lines with ties do this before cutting through the overlapped planks. When clamped you cut through both G to F’s so that they can be butt jointed."

More in due course........