For my s&g, I cut all panels out together by having the plywood stacked. I was also carefull to ensure that I always had them pretty side to pretty side, and to get plywood sheets that looked identical to each other. That way I could keep their personalities matching on both sides of the boat. When joining them (making them long) I did it stacked on top of one another, with tiny drilled holes to align them with by using the red plastic tubes that come with spraycans of solvent. My sheers were made as close to perfectly identical as I could possibly make them. I did make them segmented, just to achieve that matching personality.

The most worrysome part I had to deal with for keeping it straight was that my bilge panel is cut from a single piece, laying flat on the bottom of the boat. Ensuring side to side symetry on that was tedious, and probably the most important part on my boat. I drew the heck out of things for it, and used my batten very carefully, ensuring it was held (marked and labeled) in the exact mirror image from side to side.

When stitching, I used very large perfectly matched sawhorses to support the kayak at a height that I could quickly and easily check alignment as I progressed. Ok, so the sawhorses were the sides of the bed of my wifes pickup truck. Hey, it worked. They're parallel and at just the right height for me.

I also stitched that boat at least three times before I finished. Between beveling and matching the sewing holes side to side, it took me quite a few times to get it right.

For what it's worth, there is no visible sqewing of my hull. There is also no twist. I stayed focused on symetry the whole time I was building. It was virtually a mantra in all I did. To the point of ensuring that filleting the seams was done symetrically, and even wetting out the cloth. Probably way over the top on obsession, but the boat is dead straight and matching side to side.

> I just returned from the bathroom, where I read: (from Chris
> Kulczyki's book)

> Always stack left and right side panels and shape them together
> to assure that all the panels on the right side will be EXACT mirror
> images of the panels on the left side. If there is ANY difference
> between the panels from one side compared to the other it will most
> likely manifest itself as a crooked boat.

> I'd be interested to know whether the crooked boats we are hearing
> about were built with extreme attention to panel symmetry.