: I think the issue with the SOF was that I knowinly complicated my life.
: Wanted to do Mortise and tenons which is harder than "peggin"
: the deck beams.

Pegging is easy and fast, but one of these days, I'll have to do one with m&t just for the experience.

: Probably the biggest complication was taking abit from each of the three
: books (Starr, Morris and Cunningham). Each is consistent within itself but
: when you mix and match then life gets interesting (eg the wedges on the
: gunnels from Starr, make the Cunningham mortise jig not work on the ends
: of the gunnels etc...,

The "secret" here is to install the wedges AFTER the mortices are cut. The extra length on the top of the gunwales doesn't affect the number or location of the ribs, so it's not necessary to do it in advance.

: used the Morris approach of keelson first but used
: other Cunningham techniques for the ribs..).

Why not. You just end up trimming them to fit, right?

: So you really have to
: understand what you are doing and then puzzle throught it.

Exactly.

: That is both more difficult and more satisfying at the same time.

Yup.

: You end up really knowing what you are doing.

Bingo! That's the reason I recommend to people to use mulitple references. It really helps you to understand the principles behind the methods. That gives you the freedom to mix and match techniques and be creative. Think of it as another way to personalize your boat.