> Cheers: Brian & Theresa.

I built the North Star from Rob Macks and had the same broblems with fairing.

What I did to correct the problem was as follows.

1) Establish the location of the bow and stern stations first as per plans.

2) Using clamps to hold the remaining stations to the L-brackets and the L-brackets to the strongback, begin with the stations positioned as per the plans.

3) Establish the rocker by measuring from the string to the station at the centerline.

4) Make certain the centerline is plumb by using a carpenters level (set verticlally).

5) Screw the stations to the L-brackets.

6) Without moving the largest station or the bow and stern stations move the remaing stations forward or back till the sheer lines and hull are all faired. They shouldn't have to be moved much and some stations won't move at all (if I remember right it was the half stations which mostly needed to be moved). Use a strip along each sheer line to test for fairness. I found that some of the sheer lines drawn on the stations were a little (up to about a half an inch) high or low (many of them were in the correct position). Test the hull in several places for fairness as the hull fairness should override the sheer lines drawn on the stations as transfered from the full size template halves.

Since the templates are transfered in halves to make the stations the one line on the station which you should be able to trust is the centerline.

It is important that the stations are square to the strongback centerline both vertically and horizontally.

Many hours were used up in getting everything to the point where the hull and sheer lines were fair.

7) Strip the hull and tail section.

8) The deck will now be fair except a couple stations which had to be modified by cutting off a bit, and a couple stations which had to be built up a bit.

After all this I made sure to mark the position of EVERYTHING so that if I build another I will not need to go through that again.

The North Star is truly a beautiful boat. I haven't finished mine to the point of getting it wet so I don't know how well it performs in the water but I am close and hoping it will have been worth the added hassels.

Most likely my next project will be a Gillimot Expedition.

Douglas Kuik