> I spent part of yesterday helping a friend do some stitching on his
> Seascape and it was a good educational experience for me. I have this Coho
> kit in my unheated garage and it is still to cold out (here in Central NY)
> to do any epoxy work. I would like to do some productive things now, if
> possible.

> A) is there any reason not to start drilling my stitching holes even
> though I have not yet glued the panels to length?

> B) Yesterday I saw the value of using a plane. On the inside edge of those
> curved panels a 7" long plane may not work well. Any suggestions on a
> size/model plane for this job? I probably will have little use for it
> after the boat is done (except for the next boat), so an expensive tool
> would be a waste I think.

> C) are there any other little things I can do now, before it is warm
> enough to start with any epoxy steps?

> D) any other stray hints or suggestions?

> Thanks to all who post on this board. I think I have learned a lot already
> just from reading stuff here.

I started my COHO about 11 months ago in my Brother-in-law's workshop with his help/guidance. It was my Christmas present from my Br-in-law to help me build a kayak from a kit (I bought the kit). He's a woodshop teacher in H.S. and he builds houses in the summer. I got internet access at work about 2 weeks before I finished my project and one of the first things I did was to access Nick's kayak web page including this BBS. Just the ideas to help you start COHO, I wish I had at the time of my commencement. We had problems with the epoxy to cure (time wise), and the suggestions to "warm" the specific joints could have been used in his workshop, we had problems with his furnace, it was cold (his workshop/home is only 1/2 mile from Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula). And I could only go up to work on the project on the weekends. My Br-in-law showed me some of the skills which I needed for each step and I would continue only after some critiqueing by him, he would then be off on his own proects and later show up when I was in question or could use two sets of hands. But we concluded that the shorter the sentence in the step the longer it would take to do that step.BUT (like previosly stated above) READ!READ!READ! the INSTRUCTIONS. I only called PIGMY once, and that was the question "Since I bought the hatch kit, could I cut the hatches (holes) after I glued the top down on the hull(epoxying the FG tape the entire length of the shears) or do I have to wait until the basic "boat" is built. You might know what I'm talkin about when you get to this step or have any questions, just e-mail and I'll explain why I did it, without Pigmy's indorsement. Just ask this BBS and you'll get suggestions from the best, no matter how trivial the question...Wayne g.