Off the dime

I acquired the books that will guide my progress through the building of Auklet.  One is Iain Oughtred's own guide to clinker plywood boat construction, the other I bought on impulse at the time I ordered the first: How to Build Glued-Lapstrake Wooden Boats (Brooks and Hill).

It is useful to have more than one reference for such a project, though it also provides great excuses for dithering -- more choices on how to do things.  Since each of these books is written as a guide to an array of boats, they have many contingencies (If dory, then this, if skiff then that, etc.)  What one really wants is one well-illustrated, lucidly articulated book intended for your project alone.  I guess that's why people buy kits.  I at least have my near-ancient past history of building an ultralight canoe, though that is a distant, faded memory.

But the project is launched.  I spent some time reading each of my references, and bought the materials necessary for the building frame, including the molds.  I have the building frame together, suitably braced and leveled, and I cut blanks for the molds.  Next step is to transfer the control points from the full sized plans onto the 1/2" plywood blanks, cut them out, mount the baseline braces and attach them to the building frame.

I have not yet decided whether to put ribbands on the molds, ala Tom Hill's methodology, or to go without as Oughtred recommends. 

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