: Hi,

: Please excuse me if this question has been asked and I couldn't
: find it. I've had Nick Schades book for a year or two, and have
: yet to start heh. I was and still am stuck at the point in which
: you loft the points. I was wondering what everyone did for that.
: Do you do it on the computer? or do you purchase the plans or do
: you purchase the whole kit and kaboodle at like noahs or
: something? Also if anyone was in Toronto, Ontario that could
: either show me or give me a couple pointers.

I'm like you. Building my first, the guillemot, from the book. I did the lofting myself on graph paper. It took a while to follow it, but I really enjoyed it.

Study figure 4-2 and compare this to the offsets in the guillemot table. This will help work out where the coordinates are placed. In my book, I scribbled the following notes in the offsets table:
* top section, buttocks. The left column is widths out from the centerline. The actual offsets are heights above/below those lateral lines. Eg hull buttock for form 4: at 4" either side of the centerline, the depth to the hull is 1.31". So mark a dot 4" to the left of the centerline and 1.31" down from the waterline.

* bottom section, waterlines. The left column is horizontal lines above/below the waterline. The offsets are lateral positions on each line. So what you end up doing is plotting the outline twice, in effect. You'll see why it's necessary, some places the slope of the line is so acute you need the offsets from both points of view to get a useful plot.

I found it dead easy to glue the paper forms onto mdf. For me, I figure plotting on 1" paper with 1/10" gradations quick am I should think a *lot* quicker than lifting direct onto plain wood. I also found the graph paper lines quite handy when placing detail strips to get symmetry across the boat

good luck!