Lining off the planks

Lining off the hull is the process of marking out where the edges of the planks will end up on each mould.  There's a few ways to get the job done, but as I found out a little experience and practice goes a long way.  I actually ended up trying four different variations before finally being satisfied.  It was heavy on my mind that the line off marks would dictate the overall look of the boat, I wanted to get it right before commiting to cutting my expensive marine plywood  ($150/sheet, Yikes!). 

In the end I followed the intructions found in The Boatbuilders Apprentice.

• I divided the vertical distance from the keel to the top of the stem by the number of planks (7)
• I did the same calculation on the station mold closest to the centre
• I divided the flat portions of the transom as equally as possible
• Then I ran a long pine batten through these marks and clamped them lightly



Two plank lines clamped in place

• The battens have a tendancy to naturally curve in a pleasing way.  By sighting from either end I could bump them one way or the other and nail them down at each mould when they looked fair.

Here's the mistake I made the first couple times: Notice the sharp inner corner on that closest mould?  The 2nd plank had to land on that transition.  That meant making the first 2 planks narrower and making the rest wider.



All 7 planks lined off.  This gives a pretty good idea of what the boat will look like when planked.  I think they look pretty fair so I marked each mould at the edge of these battens.

One final view of the lining battens.