The McInnis Bateau is a design I have always admired. It is from the 1940’s and was John McInnis (famous large boat designer) private fishing boat design. It is somewhere between a canoe and a dory.
This was a fun project – steps included;
- Lofting the lines from John Gardners Classic Boat book
- Building solid wood plug (Cherry)
- Making mold mirror images at each station
- Planing, chiseling, sanding to get hull shape
- Stain/Poly
- Build stand
- Talk wife into putting it on Fireplace mantle.
Nothing too hard except the last step.
Offsets to lay out lines – the table of offsets from J. Gardner building Classic Boats Book. Amazing how a small set of numbers defines the shape of a boat hull.
Transfer each body section to a hardboard to create a female mold pattern (about as opposite you can get when compared to how you make a actual boat)
Glue up plug and prep for mold templates
Transfer lines to plug – you can see the female body plan patterns on bench, the plan/profile land floor templates below. As boat is symmetrical fore/aft, right/left only half of templates needed. One of the downsides to the full boat build is the number of frames actually needed to construct.
Cut plan view and profile view from plug on bandsaw – this is the profile – Note the vertical lines are stations and a unique template is used at each one to get shape out. Kind of like a loaf of bread geometry.
Plan/Spokeshave/File/Sand to get templates to fit at each station – by far the most time consuming. This particular model build from pine so not too difficult. I did a similar one from cherry and it was signifigantly harder to carve.
Place on your mantle and admire!