the first step in building the boat is drawing the design onto the plywood. it is critical that the design is drawn correctly, or else how will it be cut correctly?

I started I was just using a tape measure but soon discovered that 1) the (cheap) tape measure was lieing to me, and 2) I was occasionally misreading the marks, and 3) pencil marks are too wide to be really accurate.

every tape measure I have used recently seems to have a bit of wobble at the lip. at least a mm or 2. I checked by measuring a steel ruler. it was out by 1 mm. 1 mm error could make all sorts of problems, if for example, you measure something from one end of the wood and then something else from the other.

to avoid misreading the marks I made a measuring stick. My measuring stick is made from a piece of aluminium, I found it in a dumpster but you could buy one as well. if you buy one make sure it is a little longer than 1.22 mm. This is a more useful length because plywood comes in 1.22 m wide pieces. I created a spreadsheet to figure out where all the marks will be from the edge of the plywood, then I clamped a tape measure along the aluminium on top of the bench (taking care to compensate for the error).

then, I used a square to lineup all the lengths from the spread sheet and scored them onto the aluminium with a craft knife. this way you get a really precise mark parallel to the edge. even if you where using a pencil you should use a square to guide the pencil.

once you have cut the groove in, I drew along the groove with a marker pen. the groovy guides the pen, and the ink settles in the groove. write a label next to each mark... I seperated marks for different parts of the boat into different sides of the measuring stick so that I wouldn't get confused.

now... it is easy to mark out everything on the wood. place the end of the measuring stick against the edge of the plywood and then line up the edge of a ruler or something against the mark and then draw a line with a sharp pencil.

to get the curves for the bow and stern chines I marked out the end points, and a straight line where the curve starts. I clamp down the bendy stick along the line a bend it to the end point, then mark it with a pencil.

next, cutting it out...

I just cut out the darts. I prefer to use a good hand saw rather than a jig saw because it is more accurate. I use a tajima japanese style pull saw. I just cut the darts out by crouching on the floor and bending the panel up with one hand so that there is clearance to cut it. just cut the darts for now, leave the excess above the stringers till after they are glued on.