The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction - WEST SYSTEM Epoxy

174 First Production Steps
did the sheer line. Double check any major errors and
then move the batten just enough so that it forms a fair,
even curve. Draw in the deck line in ink. <strong>The</strong> lines that
you have drawn so far are final, and it won’t be necessary
to change them during the lofting process.
Body Plan Sections
With the drawing of the grid, profile lines, and deck
line, the primary lines of the lofting are complete. <strong>The</strong>
next step is to lay out the body plan, which is the section
view of the stations. <strong>The</strong> profile lines and the deck line,
drawn in ink, will give you the height of the keel profile
above the baseline and the height and width of the sheer
at any given station. <strong>The</strong> first job is to transfer these
dimensions—as faired, not as given in the table of
offsets—from the profile and half breadth views to
the body plan using pick-up sticks.
Pick-up sticks do just that: they pick up a dimension
from one area of the lofting and transfer it to another
area or view. <strong>The</strong>y are much easier to use and provide
less chance for error than a steel measuring tape.
Pick any station to start with in transferring the profile
and sheer points to the body plan. Lay the pick-up stick
along the station line so that it is touching the block at
the baseline and the fine edge of the pick-up stick just
touches the station line. In using the pick-up sticks,
always label what station line, waterline, or other information
you are transferring. In this case, you would
write the station number and baseline on the end of the
sticks touching the baseline. <strong>The</strong>n you would mark and
label the keel profile height, the sheer height, and the
deck width. <strong>The</strong>n take the pick-up stick to the body
plan grid and lay it along the centerline, touching the
baseline block in the profile view. Mark the height of
the keel profile and sheer on the centerline. Lay out the
stations on the body plan on the same side of the
centerline as the designer has drawn them in the plans.
To locate the half breadth deck point, draw a line out at
right angles to the centerline at the height of the sheer.
Most loftsmen use the adjacent station to lay out the
sheer height and connect the two points with the
straightedge, drawing in a light pencil line. <strong>The</strong>n,
measure out from center on this line for the sheer point.
This is slightly more accurate than using a square off
Figure 16-7 Lofting weights and a flexible plastic batten
being used to fair after sections on an IOR racer.
the centerline. Once these points are located for a
particular station, label them according to the station
they belong to. Lay out the rest of the stations in the
same manner. <strong>The</strong>se points are permanent and won’t
change until planking thickness is subtracted.
<strong>The</strong> next job, and it is a fairly big one, is to use the
table of offsets, plus the points that you have already
located, to lay out the body plan consisting of a half
section view of each station. Some loftsmen lay out all
the offsets for the body plan, measuring directly on the
body plan grid with a steel tape. Other loftsmen prefer
to lay out all of the dimensions on measuring sticks and
then transfer the information to the body plan with
these. Neither method offers a big advantage, although
it may be easier to work in one spot with a table of
offsets to mark the sticks than to climb around on the
lofting board dragging the measuring tape and the
offsets with you as you go. Whatever system you use,
label everything carefully.
If you use measuring sticks, you can put the information
for an entire station section on one measuring
stick as long as this will not result in too much confusion.
To do this, start at one end of the stick and use
this end as a centerline from which to lay out the
waterlines. <strong>The</strong>n use the other end of the stick as the
baseline to lay out the buttocks, using a different ink
color from that used for the waterlines. To mark the
diagonals, choose the end of the stick that is less