: I stitched-and-glued a Pygmy Arctic Tern 14 a year ago. I love the boat, I
: love having built it myself. Now I'd like to build a strip boat (having
: never done one before). In particular, I'd like to duplicate a touring
: kevlar boat I own and have paddled for a couple years. My question: how
: best to create the forms from scratch (without dissembling the original
: kayak) and then line them up accurately on the stronghold. -- Thanks, John

Here is a couple of ways you might duplicate you kayak stations. Mark the widest mid-section station area on your commercial yak with a pencil. Paste wax this area. Cut a cardboard ½ template that is close to the out side shape of your hull from the keel center line and the deck center line. Mix 2 part body repair putty and lay on your pencil line and press in the cardboard until the putty set in a few minutes. Knock off the template with a mallet and you have your shape. Work from this section towards the stern and bow for each extra section station you want make. Then trace these shapes onto plywood.

Another way that might work is to build a copy gage from a bunch of wood strips we use on our boats, set side by side and sanwitched between two boards at one end holding all of the slats together. Push the copy gage onto your boat and tighten the boards to hold the wood strips in place and mark each slat where it touches your boat. Lay the gauge on your plywood, mark a dot where each slat touched you boat and then connect the dots. I know that’s reaching but it’s an idea.

John