Progress has been sporadic lately but it’s good to be building again. First job was to cut out the frames in 3mm ply having transferred the drawings using my preferred method of carbon paper. Following advice on here I’m going to plank in balsa and use balsa blocks, certainly at the stern. I’ve retained the notches for stringers to give me a feel as to whether the hull shape is right and give me options for the direction of planking if needed.

A building board was cut down from an old shelf – made easier as I’ve now got my lightweight Workmate back home.

Then on with the hull keel. Being mahogany I didn’t know how well the carbon lines would show up so bought a white Sharpie just incase – needn’t have worried as I could see the lines fine including some in pencil I added. The template had to be transferred to both sides of the keel as the angled frames need to be accurately positioned and of course there is the stringers fixed to the keel.

I’d set up my scroll saw before starting this build and with a new blade and taking it easy it coped with cutting the 9mm mahogany and the cut was nice and square – would have needed it for some of the cuts anyway. I replaced the blades a couple of times to ensure they were sharp. I might actually use the bandsaw one day!

Rather than use one wide board I’d bought a couple of smaller ones with view to making the keel in three parts with the two smaller parts just being the topmost parts of the bow and stern with joints introduced to increase the gluing area. Bit of sanding to the lines with a selection of invaluable PermaGrit blocks and files and ready for gluing together.

Chris