The Lillian-B was designed and built by volunteers of the Boat Shop at the Reedville Fisherman's Museum under the leadership of Jay Rohmann. It is a classic example of a traditional Chesapeake deadrise hull, a distinct type of construction that creates a V-bottom hull which is cross planked. In a cross-planked boat, the planks run from the sides of the boat to the keel rather than from the front to the back. Another unique feature is the twisted or "staved" planks in the forward area of the hull bottom, with the twist sawn into the plank from thick stock. "Deadrise" originally referred to the rise of the bottom planks from the keel to the outer edge of the boat, or the chine, which forms a V-shaped bottom, and it also became the common name for this type of boat.