Lofting...and more lofting...and then some.

Lofting is the process of transferring the lines on a boat lines plan or from a table of offsets onto the floor, or in my case, a couple of pieces of hardboard painted white and nailed down.  You basically draw the boat lines or contours, full-size on the floor with three different views overlaid on each other....confused?  Me too!  I've learned a lot obout lofting these last couple of weeks...but particularly that it gives you sore knees, and you have to change the lines a lot.  I now have knee pads and a decent rubber.  

Dudley Dix nails the process here http://www.dixdesign.com/lofting1.htm it's much easier when you're actually doing it, and I've just done it twice. Once for Jubilee, the three quarter sized Sgoth scaled down to 16 ft and then for Morag, the half-sized Sgoth that I took lines off in April.  The difference between the two boats was remarkable although they are both still shapley Sgoths.  This is not really surprising as scaling a big boat down requires a lot of changes.  It was a worth while exercise though, seeing those lovely beamy lines taking shape.