Welcome to the world of boatbuilding.

Its great you are able to get your son involved also, it will be a great education for him watching you work through all of the problems/solutions.

For aligning the forms, I used several string lines. One along the keel line and one on each side, sounds like the toothpicks are a good solution also.

On my second boat I drilled two 1/2" holes along the DWL a couple of inches either side of the centerline and ran a string thru the forms that way....whatever works.

Have fun with the process

Ben S.

: I am building my first kayak--a Great Awk. My son and I are working from
: Nick's book. We did the lofting together, we did the CAD drawings
: together, and we have cut out the forms together. The only significant
: headache so far has been in aligning the forms on the 2 by 4 strongback so
: that the reference lines line up for all the forms.

: I created a solution that worked for me. Some of you experienced guys may
: have a better way. First, I modified the brackets screwed to the strongack
: so that they extended fairly close to the edge of the form. I added a
: notch for a clamp to hold onto. I then positioned all the forms and used
: spring clamps to temporarily hold the forms to the brackets. This worked
: well.

: The next problem was getting my old eyes to focus on all the refernce lines.
: I am sure my wife would have laughed had she walked in the garage while I
: was tilting my head in all kind of directions. Alas, no luck. I solved
: this problem by using 3-inch long square toothpicks taped to each form.
: They extended each of the reference lines on each form.

: With my toothpicks acting as visual guides and the spring clamps holding the
: forms, I was able to align all the forms and screw them to the brackets.

: Success! I would like to know how others have solved this problem that caused
: me such pain.