Hi;

I'm presently building a Rob Macks Georgian Bay, and have become very familiar with his format for supplying plans and instructions.

Firstly - When I first saw the plan sheets, I had some hesitation because they simply could not be bound into any usable format - That is, it was a stack of 11x14 sheets that had to be left as a stack, 4 pages per sheet, copied in a fashion that required that it be left unbound. My inclination was that if this was the way the plans were distributed, what surprises might the rest of the construction leave? My fears were unfounded. The "stack-o-'structions" has turned out to be handy, and have caused absolutely no problems. The accuracy in the stack and the plan sheets is quite good, I might add.

Secondly - My few email questions to Rob were answered by him within 12 hours. Frankly, the plans for the Georgian Bay leave little room for questions. I developed a good deal of confidence in his plans from this.

Thirdly - I also pondered a central strongback in lieu of the conventional canoe style, but as a novice, I figured I'd be better off doing it by the book. I built his style of strongback, and the forms lined up absolutely, positively, beyond the question of any doubt, . . . PERFECT. His designs spring from a computer with a CAD program, it would be hard NOT to get the stations perfect, and hull/deck lines fair.

Lastly - I strongly suspect pilot error - In the computer industry we used to say "PEBCAK - - Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard." Either you introduced errors while tracing the forms, which is not impossible, or in cutting the forms, which could be very likely, or in aligning the center and sheer lines with the outline of the form, which is easy to do, or in misinterpreting rocker offsets, certainly not out of the question, or even misunderstanding his form spacing requirements - Which I think you alluded to.

I researched Laughing Loon by searching and reading many of the personal websites of builders who used his plans, and not one was derogatory. So many North Stars (and Georgian Bays, etc.) are out there, if there were problems, they are VERY well kept secrets.

Go over what you've done, find out where you deviated from the plans, and try again. Nick's plans are newer and indeed superb, but Rob's are very functional and accurate and can produce a masterpiece as well. You can view my implementation of Rob's plans by visiting the link at the bottom, which shows my Georgian Bay construction.

Good Luck and Best Regards, Spidey