Before I forget again, image credit here goes to Larry Gosting. Thanks, Larry, and my apology for neglecting it earlier.

I found one or two websites listing wire twisters, and perhaps Stride Tools was one of them. From a visit to an industrial supplier, I know Proto makes them as well but at Proto prices. I found mine in Seattle at Hardwicks (at 42nd & Roosevelt in the U District), which is a gem of a place if you're into old timey hardware stores. They had a metal lathe there which I swear was the same make & model as my grandad's back home in NY 40 years ago, and only an effort of will prevented me from whipping out my checkbook.

Anyway, they carry this pretty good 6" Taiwan-made version for about $20, while their 8" model is $14. Go figure. The 8 or 9" versions from Proto were something like $60, but I figure that's intended for real aircraft mechanics not shade tree shipwrights.

Go ahead, call me crazy, but I have decided to fall in love with the wire holes. Following Pygmy's instructions to use a small drillhole jig, I made my staple holes 6" apart, starting 1" from the bow of each plywood plank. When the planks are then assembled, these holes creat a regular pattern of sorts, which imparts a texture to the surface, highliting the grain of the wood. To me, then, they are accents rather than eyesores, and from 10' away they are invisible anyway. On my next boat (an Arctic Tern maybe?) I'm considering using a 5" or 4" spacing just for that reason.

To carry this a bit too far, I'd ask holephobes if seeing rivets on the wings of an otherwise neat looking aircraft would make you turn away in disgust or refuse to board? Ignoring the issue of too-high-slag-content, do the rivets on the side of the Titanic make it look cheap, or do they impart a sense of strength and deliberate planning? Yes, I know it sank, but it's a good example of a boat we've probably all seen recently.

I'm trying to make lemonade from lemons here, maybe. I did worry greatly about the holes before actually making anything. I considered alternatives from here and other sources for a long time. In the final analysis, just before I actually started drilling, I decided to simply build the Coho as best I could the way the kit instructions said to, and then see what happened, saying to myself, "I can always sell this boat and try again with my own, or someone else's, method if it turns out that badly." Live and learn; I turned 180 degrees in less than a week of actually doing what I had spent months daydreaming and worrying about.

A while back, George Roberts commented that while you're in the boat you can't see the bottom, so do the hull without hiding, or avoiding, the holes, and then do the deck depending on how you like that. Still sounds good to me, and it's changed my life. Thank you, George! No good deed should go unpunished.

Duct tape has its own problems in this usage, i.e., substituting for wire. It's difficult to make necesary readjustments once it's on, and its adhesive quality degrades with each peeling. It may leave adhesive residue on a surface you want pretty clean. It stretches a little bit. I don't think it can hold as tightly as wire or is as easy to 'control'. And finally, for comedic effect there's nothing like working with duct tape while wearing latex gloves.