12.) Reverse Engineering

I procrastinated long and hard before I let myself see the truth: the only way I could get the boat back into its original shape was to do the exact opposite of what the original builder had done. Rather than constructing an internal frame and bending the wood over it and into shape, I had to build an external frame and shape the boat to that.  Here it is, with the vessel hanging precariously over it.

The advantage of this approach is that it will allow me to work on the inside of the boat, installing frames, a bulkhead, and a new centerboard trunk with the boat locked firmly into its proper shape.  Once those things and a few others are completed, the boat should hold its form when removed from the cradle.

The frame itself is made of shop grade 3/4 inch Baltic Birch plywood and connected together with a combination of wood and threaded rods. Bolts and washers on the rods ensure that the spacing between each station is exact to within less than 1/16th of an inch.  Each station matches the one specified in the S&S plans. The whole contraption rests on two large timbers that have been leveled front to back and side to side.

I chose Baltic Birch because it has more layers than regular plywood.  This makes it much harder to sand into shape, but I viewed that as an advantage because I didn't want to sand across my lines at any point.  If that happened, I would have to throw the piece out and make another (which I ended up doing more than once anyway).