: I am at the keel with the stern and 1+ strips away at the bow. What problems
: have I created for myself by not arriving at the same time, and how can I
: fix them? I am making my first boat - Great Awk. Also, It looks like quite
: a transition between side strips and the keel - vertical to horizontal.
: Any tips...please and thank you Scott E.

hi scott

stand back and take a look at yr yak.

see the front is a little bit higher than the back? takes more steps(strips) to meet the bottom, right? normal and natural.

see the strips right at the front and at the back? mostly vertical near the stems right? and at the sides say half are verticallish and halfish are horizontallish, oui? so it's natural that some strips twist quite a bit.

so what you;re seeing is the beauty and mystery of changing forms and lines. Revel in it. run your hands(clean) along it. feel it. It's some of the wondrous emphasized character of our wood strip yaks.

so to actually construct it, there are many ways. lots of people throw up their hands here and fit in a disjunctive 'football' shape cause it too hard to make the flow. or if you have distinctive 'chines', the disjunction reinforces(visually) the change. what do you want your yak to say?

if you're having difficulty:

-look first - will a cheater strip look ok and follow the lines - make a bs one and check it out, lay out some small scrap strips

-try ripping the last and first 2 feet or so w/ a tiny razor saw to make the twist and curvatur much more possible at these harder places

-use complete thin strips.

-use long cheater strips until the shape is more resolvable.

essentially what you;re experiencing is just due to the shape.take a look if it's exactly what you want.

-mick