Wow! When I read the posts on this board I sometimes feel like I'm in a VERY fancy hotel, and sometime real soon, the rest of the guests are going to notice that I'm not wearing socks. Some of you guys just floor me! The things that folks do to get it just perfect is astonishing! I felt positively slothful when I read about the guy who glued sandpaper to a putty knife blade to sand in between strips. And to figure out a way to attach lasers to the forms to aid in alighnment? Wow!I am clearly a VERY low tech (standards?) builder. If my strips had a gap that was too big, I just leaned on the strip. To align my forms I just ran a dozen strips of cheap ledger board along the guidelines and nudged and fiddled until I got it looking ok.
When the boat is done it will look fine. I used some white pine and mahogany for accents. I planed it fair and sanded it so that it was smooth. There are multiple flaws that you don't need to look TOO hard to find, but it will float and it will still be fun to play in. (In fact I went down to the beach today and watched the waves POUNDING in and got all disapointed that itsnot ready and I'm not good enough to be out playing in that sort of surf. It looked like it would have been a blast!)
What this board has done is make me realise that I can make a work of art in addition to making a plaything. This boat will be my first, and I'm looking forward to paddling it. But I'm already planning the next one, and I've got several ideas that I want to try out including more design work, no staples, and using narrower strips to get a smoother flow around the sharp curves at the stem and stern.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Paul