Today I did a dry fit of the bottom panel (which is made up of two pieces of ply butted end to end). After cutting out the shape roughly with a jigsaw and hand saw (after scribing the shape with the ply laid on top of the dory) I screwed the panels temporarily (the forward panel 8 feet long, the one at the stern shorter) down onto the chines. I then proceeded to plane the panels first with a long plane, finishing with a small hand plane. The panels are now ready to be glued and screwed down to the chines permanently.
I had forgotten what hard work (brutal even) boat building is. At 75 years old, it's not exactly a struggle, but I do have to pace myself - here was me contemplating building a 123 foot Grand Banks fishing schooner before this coming Christmas from which to launch my dory so that I can go fishing for Cod on the Grand Banks off New Foundland (Something similar to the famous fishing schooner 'Bluenose', but I think I'll just settle for rowing it on Whangarei harbour. : > )
It is pleasing to see the shape of the dory appearing. So far, she looks fine and fair with no distortions or flat spots. After gluing and fine fairing of the bottom panels at the chines the next jobs will be: fiber glassing the bottom panel, attaching a skeg at the stern and attaching the gunwales - then she will be ready to flip upright.
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