The
Bosun’s Mate
22
Workshop Hints and Tips from
Mark Aplin of Overwater Boats
I’m really pleased that Richard has invited me to contribute a series of articles for Barnacle Bill Magazine.
I was really impressed with Issue 1 and I hope readers will find my articles
of interest.
My aim is to help readers with boat building techniques: there is a wealth
of information out there both in print and on the internet; but it can often
be hard to find good illustrated examples for specific tasks. I hope to share
practical ways of getting things done that work well and are doable with
the normal range of tools you might own or be able to borrow or hire.
If you have a question or area you are interested in that might be of interest to other readers feel free to email me. I will try to help with any queries
received and include where I can in future articles.
In this issue I will be looking at three areas:
• marking out curved panel shapes;
• shaping the panels; and
• cutting centre/dagger board slots:
Marking Out Curved Panel Edges
Boat plans frequently include a table of offsets for each panel. These enable you to plot the panel corners, and a series of points along the panel edges – you then need to join them up – easy if it is a straight
line (e.g. transoms & bulkheads) – more difficult if you need to draw a fair curve.
Photo 1 “Marking out a curved panel edge”