Lofting, almost done

So this is what our floor lofting looks like. Its not the entirety of the lofting, as that is difficult to capture in a single frame, but this gives you an idea of what we are doing, and the scale, as you can see a silver six inch ruler, and a well sharpened pencil against the lofting.

In the main view, what you are seeing, while looking like a single boat from the rear view, is actually one half of the boat, split in two, to the right and left.

So on the right side you are seeing the boat in what is called stations, 1-4, meaning from the fore to the center of the boat. On the left side, you are seeing the continuum of the boat, from stations 5 to the transom, aft of the boat.

This is not easy to describe, let alone visualize, at least for myself, and by the looks I see on some of the other students faces, they as well.

If you want to drive yourself crazy, you can look at the bottom of the picture, and that is what the boat looks like if you were to cut it in half like a melon, from front to back, than lay it down on its center, looking at it from the bottom of the boat (the part that sits in the water normally), and up its side to where the top of the boat begins. Its taken about two months for that to sink in to my melon.

And if you want to take it a step further, and you cannot tell by the picture, but there is another view to the boat, so you are seeing a minimum of three different angles of the boat, overlaid on each other, but constantly referencing one another so that angles and measurements prove out like a mathematical equation, showing that everything is true to itself.

This is my lofting partner Mark, giving the thumbs up. He's been great at helping me learn more about the lofting process, how to visualize things, and how to be more OCD regarding measurements and markings. He's a good woodworker, so I've been lucky to be paired with him. In the background, explaining shit as usual, is Leigh, our teacher from Massachusetts. He's irreverent and funny and helps us keep perspective when taking this shit to seriously.