Tricks of the trade.

The bottom of the boat gets cut out and laid on the top of the Stegosaurus (note said creature in pictures). It gets fastened and glued down to the bow and transom (the ends) which are also cut out and form the ends of the moulds. The moulds are the vertical sheets spaced along the whole thing. In the bottom of these two pictures I am planing an angle so that the first planks can go on without big gaps.

Now, at this point I need to explain something about myself....I am a jeweller, for those of you who don't know, and in jewellery you do not leave gaps in surfaces to be joined, it's not a choice, it just doesn't work. In boat building you technically should make things fit properly but there is this stuff called epoxy. It's the glue you use to join everything. It's basically horrible, sticky, bit poisonous stuff but it is also GREAT at filling gaps! So, my helpful shipwright has been heard to say more than once "you don't need to be a jeweller about this, you can use epoxy". All very well though, his joins always meet perfectly.