SimpleSimon is a small one person sailing/rowing skiff designed for easy building and transportation. It is 10 ft long and 4 ft at maximum beam. Optionally, the front 3 ft can be made detachable for even easier transport. Below you will find a detailed building sequence and links to diagrams and the offsets for the hull panels. I used the good side of the wood to better show you how to do the laying out. Normally I would have done all the plotting on the B side of the panel and left the A side unmarked.

 

Here are the Tools needed to lay out the offsets. As you can see (hopefully), I have drawn my stations at 12" and have started to plot the points. The straight line along the length of the ply is not a baseline but is where I will cut that strip off and clamp to another strip so I can cut the sides out together. I measured 16" in from the edge, as the max width of the boat's side panel is 15 9/16". I used the edge of the ply as my baseline.

 

I have finished plotting the points and I put nails in to run the batten along. The nails are offset so that the just touches the line when driven into the wood. Make sure that you put the nails on the waste side of the cut, so you don't have extra holes to fill.

 

Here the batten is bent and clamped to the nails. Use a batten that is flexible enough to do the curves you want, but won't wobble around or flex out of place when you are running the pencil along it. I use a piece of aluminum, 1" x 1/8" x 8' long. Trace along the batten between the nails. Don't worry too much about the little spaces left in the line when you remove the nails, you will cut right through them before you know it.

 

I took a Sharpie marker and traced the lines so you could see the shape that the panel will take. The edge of the ply is the bottom chine, and is the more critical of the cuts. What ever you do to the top will only be reflected in the shape of the shear, but the bottom has to mate decently with the bottom panel.

 

Here I have cut the strips off and screwed them together (in the waste areas). The leftover center piece will be used for transom and bulkheads etc. Panels are put together B side to B side. Normally the A sides would be faced together.

 

First cut is along the sheer. The saw was set to about 3/4" depth, to cut 1/2" of wood. The shallower the blade depth the sharper the curve that can be cut before the blade binds or you gouge out with the back of the blade. I usually set the depth to 1/4" deeper than the thickness of the wood to be cut. A circular saw often makes a smoother curve than a jigsaw, which is subject to much more wobble when cutting. Slow and easy is the way to go, no matter which saw you choose.

 

And the end result of an hour's work: A pair of matching side panels. Chugger waits, bottom up, for temperatures to climb into epoxying range. I don't have quick hardener and I am not about to buy any, so it will have to wait. Temps today were in the high 40s.