Joe,
Let me start by saying that while I did manual drafting for approximately 16 years prior to converting over to CAD, I never did anything as ambitious as naval or aeronautical drafting. I lump them together because they both involve large and complex layouts. I suppose you could do this process at a small scale to start with and build a model to test it. If that works then increase all the measurements to full size and do it for real. All easier said than done I'm sure.

Note: In this explanation I am orienting the boat with the top view being viewed with the length of the boat horizontal extending from left to right. The front view is really the side of the boat and the side view is the end of the boat showing it at it's largest width and height.

I would think that you would need to do this in a few different steps. The first would be to create an orthographic (front, top and side view) drawing of the finished craft with all your desired proportions--this is the basis of all the other drawings. The second step would involve dividing the length of the drawing (both top and front views of the boat) into sections with each line representing where you want a station--the more stations, the more points for lofting that will be available later. You would add a number of reference lines (center of the boat for the top view and probably the bottomost point of the hull at the front view) at that point to allow you to obtain all the dimensions at each station which would allow you to draw a view of each station marking the start and finish points of hull plates, side plates and deck plates. After that it would be a matter of using all the previous drawings with the station drawings being the key and determining the true length of each plate from the common reference point. After that it is just a matter of lofting the panels in their developed shape which is determined by the huge amounts of measurements you will have compiled.

Well, I did not explain that as clear as I would have liked but sometimes these things aren't so clear until you actually touch the pencil to the paper. I hope this will at least give you a rough outline of what you may be looking at. I think the drafting would be a project unto itself in this case. Maybe a compromise? Hand draft the overall design (top, front and side views) and use the this to recreate it in a marine drafting program that exports developed panels? If you just use AutoCAD or some other program such as that you will still basically be doing the steps above although the 3d aspects of these programs can do lots of things. I hardly ever use 3d drafting in my specific niche of the drafting world so I cannot say for sure how to approach it from that standpoint.

I cheated on my project and used AutoCAD to generate my patterns and printed them out full size on my plotter at work. The patterns were beautiful but getting them on the wood (spray adhesive helped, the wind didn't) and keeping a steady hand while cutting proved to more work for me than I thought it would be.

Good luck to you and have fun.

PS--Just the other day someone on the forum was inquiring about converting a skin on frame design to stitch and glue. Someone had a great idea about setting up the stations and then actually skinning the forms only to cut the skins off and use them as patterns. Very ingenious and it eliminates the most tedious part of the drafting, the taking of the measurements to prepare for lofting. Great idea whoever that was!

--Tony

: In the old day's how did drafters (or lofters's I think they call them) draw
: the bow and stern on the kayaks?
: My question, I think is, the up swept portions and keel lines must have some
: sort of curve when laid flat but Are not shown when drawn 2d front /side/
: top. This is for S&G construction. I know theirs software out there that
: does this automatically but I'd like to try and draw one from paper. Did
: they cut and make a pattern first then draw it on blue print or the other
: way around?
: Thanks for any help