Q.   How many models are available?
A.
There are two models available; The Free Lassie - a 10 foot solo canoe based on Rushton's Wee Lassie.  Fast, beautiful and very light, the Free Lassie weighs only 18lbs. This canoe kit can be had for as little as $650 (U.S. funds). See our kits section for further information. The Big Lassie - a 14 1/2 foot very fast, very safe and very light boat. The Big Lassie weighs in at about 31lbs.

Q.    What are Ultralight boats?
A.
Ultralights are boats that depending on their size, can be lifted up with only one finger. Dreamcatcher Boats tries to keep solo canoes under 20lbs. They are built of a skin of ballistic nylon stretched over a frame of lashed-together Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Their origins are thousands of years old, just like Irish Coracles and Eskimo Kayaks and Baidarkas.

Q.    Why are they so popular now?
A.
Dreamcatcher Boats are ideal for family projects and solo endeavors. You can easily and quickly construct fun boats in your own home with a minimum of effort. Their simplicity takes the mystery out of boat building. You can even build them in your living room.

Q.    How much do they cost?
A.
Dreamcatcher Boats are affordable and, as pleasure craft, are unusually reasonable in price. This is because of their simple construction, brilliant design and ecologically friendly components. You should be able to build one for well under $750, compared with the standard $1500+ elsewhere.

Q.    How does a family make one?
A.
Dreamcatcher Boats can come in kits 12 feet long and a couple of handfuls around, or else you can just purchase plans and video, skin and lashing from us and source your wood locally (which we recommend). They are made with some very basic hand tools, for example, a handsaw and perhaps a rasp and some sandpaper. On average, they take three days or 24 hours to assemble. Right away you'll be on the water.

Q.    Once made, can I get it out of my basement?
A.
You can do it even in your living room and get it out through a regular door or window frame. You can build it in your apartment and let it down to the parking lot below with a rope because it only weighs approximately 20-45lbs.

Q.    How do I transport this boat to the water?
A.
You can lash any Dreamcatcher Boat to the roof of your vehicle. Dreamcatcher Boats provides you with simple plans for making your own attractive wooden roof rack. Two small children can easily carry one of these boats 200 feet down to the water.

Q.    Are they hard to manoeuvre?
A.
Dreamcatcher Boats are stable and easy to handle. You can buy or make your own paddles cheaply from wood. Handling a Dreamcatcher Boat is like tracking on rails -- you can spin it on its own axis or propel it several boat lengths with one stroke of the paddle.

Q.    What about safety?
A.
Dreamcatcher Boats are safe and they resist tipping. They are far more stable than a kayak. The Free Lassie boat can keep up very well with a two person canoe and the skills of any novice are enough to propel them. They have a shoal draft so you can paddle them in very shallow water. They are exceptionally stable because the paddler is sitting on the floor providing their own ballast. In regular canoes the paddler is sitting about a foot above water level.

Q.    What are Dreamcatcher Boats made of?
A.
The Dreamcatcher Boat frame is built of wood. The skin is made of ballistic nylon, the same material that bulletproof vests are made of. These crafts can resist the impact of sharp rocks and are also surprisingly abrasion resistant. The components are lashed, not glued or nailed together. This makes for a much stronger and more resilient frame.

Q.   Are they environmentally friendly?
A.
Yes, Dreamcatcher Boats are made with no noxious substances such as epoxies. Dreamcatcher Boats also require no nails.

Q.   How available are they?
A.
Dreamcatcher Boats are made on demand and can be delivered to the customer within six weeks.

Q.   How about advice after I buy one?
A.
Brian Chandler, the owner of Dreamcatcher Boats, makes himself available to answer your questions. Help is always there at the end of the phone (providing he isn't out paddling).

Q.   After I buy, then what?
A.
You are automatically given a free 12 month membership in Brian's Dreamcatcher Canoe Club which offers regular tours and special events. A fleet of Ultralight Dreamcatcher Boats are quite a sight out on the water and never fails to attract alot of attention.

Q.   Ultralight Boats -- why the big deal?
A.
If you've ever tried to haul an average canoe to the water from the top of your car or RV, then you probably know the answer to this question. Maybe you've postponed or even cancelled trips because you couldn't find anybody to go with you because your boat was so heavy you couldn't handle it yourself. Have you ever gone to the beach with your family and ended up playing Daddy Donkey while everyone else was enjoying themselves, and you were hoping your back would stay together long enough that you would be able to carry all the stuff back at the end of the day? Imagine a boat you can pick up with one finger, lives on top of your car all summer, is light enough that your kids think is fun to run to the beach with and is so comfortable, it's like sitting in your very own easy chair.

If you get to build it yourself, especially if you've never done anything like this before, it's enough to make you feel like a real hero.

Testimonials

...we tested two of Brian's Ultralight canoes; a 10 foot Free Lassie and a larger 14 foot double of similar design and construction. We paddled for several hours on False Creek in fairly calm conditions with waves from the wakes of passing powerboats enlivening our paddling experience.

As expected, these boats handle very well. They are exceptionally nimble, turn quickly, yet track well.
Larry Zakreski. Momentum Magazine

I really enjoyed my morning session at the Naramata Centre. The boat building class wasn't stressful at all. The project developed in a very interesting way, gradually emerging from nothing into a beautiful and working project.

The boat building class was interesting, satisfying and lots of fun.

The class was excellent, as was the instructor. The session was very informative and met all of my expectations.
Participants in the boat building class held in the Naramata Centre, Naramata, B.C.

Your boat building class was fun and most informative. Thanks alot, Brian.
Alan and Trevor

The skin canoe building class was excellent as was the instructor. I loved the hands on approach and I am looking forward to your next boat building seminar.
Kevin

The very well organized seminar covered in one day, every step in building a canoe. How wonderful it was to see an affordable boat come to life.
Richard

Hi Brian,
 
We finished the boat on Saturday. The varnish was still a bit soft but we went out for sea-trials yesterday with a Minn-kota Endura 30lb thrust motor and it ran beautifully. The boat tracks like an arrow even in powerboat wakes, and while the turning is a bit slow, the electric motor brings us about without argument. It is a very stable, very quiet, and fast fishing boat -- if anything, at the lowest motor speed it runs a bit fast for trolling. In any case no fish caught up to our lures.
 
We used dimensional kiln-dried WRC throughout (clear spruce is super-expensive here, $200 for an 18'  2x4). I didn't have any luck finding green wood of any sort, so we laminated the ribs out of 0.08" thick WRC that we ripped from 2x4 stock. More sawdust than finished lumber, by the way. We used polyurethane glue ("Gorilla Glue") throughout which was messy but fast, stong, and completely waterproof. Lots of sanding was needed but it gave up a nice finish. We laminated the decks from 3/8" x 1-1/2" stock in a partial herringbone pattern and reinforced them with short deck beams under. We also laminated a combing strip for the decks that helped the deck blend in with the rest of the boat. The WRC varnished up beautifully.
 
When we set the keelson we dropped the aft portion a few inches to give the stern some extra buoyancy for the electric drive that we were planning for, so with the motor and battery, the boat sits in the water with a bright attitude. We added a 1/2" x 3/4" strip full length along the keel for protection, which might account for some of the tracking ability. We haven't added seats yet since we are still working out the weight distribution but it is very forgiving as we were crawling all over it. We have nine flooring strips 3/8" x 1-1/2" and they seem to form a stiff and reasurring sole. The slight arc of the strips makes a comfortable seat, as is. We installed two thwarts so that midships are clear for a third passenger or a box of gear that we can toss in (with emergency paddles, fishing tackle, lifejackets, lunch, and duck tape).
 
For the motor mount we added some thickness at the stem (stern) post on the part above the decks, then built a block for the electric motor C-clamp that fit over the stem (stern) post. We added a long 3/8" diameter bolt that goes through a hole drilled through the block and the stern post, and added a fast-release cotter pin for good measure. The motor installation literally takes seconds, even at dock.
 
The skinning went well, and we finished with a coat of oil-based polyurethane varnish and a quart of off-white tinted polyurethane marine paint that we had lying around. The total weight for the boat (no motor or battery) is 37lb with three coats of varnish on the WRC for protection -- very easy to handle and well within what we were hoping for.
 
I attached a few pictures to this e-mail. I have more but they seem to take up a lot of space and I don't want to overload your inbox. The third picture shows the block that we made to fit over the stern post.
 
Thanks for all the help (and the critique on my original lines!). Making the boat was really a lot of fun, and my wife and I enjoyed working through the design questions that came up. Most of these were solved in the early morning in bed over a cappucino, which was by far more pleasant than my other limited dockyard / marine architect experiences.
 
 
Cheers,
 
 
Ron (and Kris)  
 

Hi, Brian

 

My name is Antonio Prado, and I live in Santos, south of Brazil.

 

I've bought your video "Build your own skin-on-frame UL canoe";  you give lots of information that are hard to get elsewhere and, above that, you SHOW how simple it is to build the boat.

  

Antonio Prado

Dear www.dreamcatcherboats.com,

Stretch has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - 14.5' Big Lassie (Dreamcatcher Boats) Build Thread - in the Self build Canoes forum of Song of the Paddle Forum : : The call of the Open Canadian Canoe.

This thread is located at:

http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=16935&goto=newpost

PROGRESS! Ribs are in, Canoe is off the form!  

Everyone is home and a car needed to go in the garage. Canoe does fit nicely on the vibe though

A word on design... IT'S AWESOME!

Upon popping the boat from the form, every odd bend in the gunwales or stringers relaxed and the boat took an amazing form. The boat weighs in at around 10-12lbs currently. I am debating adding more ribs, right not they are every 17" I may just add them to the center seating areas. This boat looks AMAZING. I can't believe how fast it has come together. I changed the front most ribs from have a block drop down to the keel to really working a rib to run all the way down to the keel. Tomorrow I'm going to fair the boat and possible lash ribs in between.

Time: About 2 days but I ended up having to plane all the ribs narrower which took several hours.

***************

 

There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

All the best,

Song of the Paddle Forum : : The call of the Open Canadian Canoe

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Caroline Smithers - Vancouver

I am so happy with the boat my son and I built together.  It was such a great experience and we now have a beautiful unique rowboat with our own personal family logo on.  I love it!  Thanks Brian for your friendly help and encouragement.