First step was to read Ian’s book there were a few points where it was helpful to look at websites of boat builders to fully understand the finer details. An example was the gains but having seen a few examples of them being cut in videos Ian’s description made sense.

There are some really outstanding videos on line, each has their own quirks but we are lucky to have such a resource even though many hours are spent watching them.

I made a scarphing jig for my router based on Alec’s design and found it produces a very neat joint and I’m looking forward to using it on the planks.

Now was the time to make a start. The first step was to machine the timber that was filling my workshop, a track saw was used to break the timber down into it major parts and these were then thicknessed on the planer or cut down further using the table saw. This took a couple of days and produced an impressive amount of shaving and sawdust.

I was really pleased with the quality of the timber although some of the sapele sections bent due to tensions within the wood. Nothing that can’t be managed and there aren’t many straight sections required on the dinghy. The wood was marked up and stored on the bench ready for use.

Now that the workshop was cleared I could make a start building the torsion box frame for the mould. The CNC parts went together beautifully but by mistake I didn’t align the two side panels correctly so needed to make a small adjustment to ensure that the stations are perpendicular to the centre line.

This definitely showed the value of taking your time and double checking everything is square. So more checks were made to ensure everything was square and the measurements matched the drawings.