We finished lofting and cutting out the 6 canoe panels in the rough this weekend, meaning we cut them well outside the lines and will need to clamp and plane them. Wow, lofting is tedious and backbreaking! Not to mention eye crossing. But we now have panels that we can actually see a canoe shape in, which is pretty exciting.

Still have to plane, as I mentioned, plus bevel the edges per the lengthy discussion last week, plus do a saturation coat of epoxy, plus build the strongback, before we can even contemplate stitching, but my mind always wanders ahead to try to get a handle on what's coming up.

All you experienced S&G folks who didn't build from a kit with predrilled holes, how do you get started? How do I line up two adjoining panels to drill opposing holes and be sure the ends are going to some together? The wood can't be bent to hold it together in shape to check it out. I believe you are supposed to start stitching in the middle and go out to the ends, but what if your starting point is incorrect and you get done only to find that the ends don't come together right? I can envision having to take it apart and drill additional holes to shift it one way or another and ending up with a solid row of holes along the edge, significantly weakening it.

Thanks for any thoughts and advice,

Patsy