: I am a first time builder who needs a little help.

: Where I am at: I bought Nicks book. I selected the Great Auk. I have lofted
: the forms, found a cool way to make the internal stems, built the box beam
: and stand, cut the forms, made a ton of reference lines on the box beam
: and forms.

: I see reference in the book to breakaway tops to the forms in the cockpit
: area. It looks to me that it needs to be the tops of form 8 and 9.

: MY QUESTION: How far down from the deck peak...or up from the shear should
: the cut be made? Is is critical? It looks from photos that it is about an
: inch or two above the top of the strongback cutout.

: After we solve this, I need to solve where to get decently clear cedar in
: South Florida. The stock at Lowes and the Depot don't look good.

: Thanks very much for your help.

: Jay

If you're near Miami, Shell lumber at US1 & 27 Av. has lots of clear cedar & also spanish cedar. I couldn't find it anywhere else. They have a whole bunch of different exotic woods in stock too, but unfortunately it's a very expensive store.