: I'm building a Chesapeake 16. I cut out the hull panels about a month ago
: today I finally got caught up with the LIST and was thinking about wireing
: them togeather. The keel line of the bottom panels is not fair. This may
: be due to an unfair batten I used to lay this panel out, or mabe I screwed
: up in my measurements. I'm thinking that since the edge of the panels that
: will become the chine is fair I can pull the widths at the stations and
: subtract about 1/8" and strike a fresh line through these points and
: come up with a slightly narrower hull. Any thoughts? Thanks.
: Bob

Hi Bob,
I recently finished a Chesapeake 16, built from the plans in the book.
My feeling is that one or two of the keel line offsets are not quite right about a third of the way forward of the stern. As this was my first boat, I left the "lump" in the panels and stitched it up. I wound up unstitching part of the keel and planing the lump (about two feet long and maybe 1/8" higher than what I considered to be a fair line)off both bottom panels along the keel. I also needed to put a 1/16 sliver of wood between the panels at one point to fix a slight hollow.
The result was a much fairer curve along the length of the keel. Is it perfect ? Hell no, but its close.
Would you EVER notice the difference on the water?
I very much doubt it.
FWIW, I checked my measurements three times, and then my wife checked them-for some reason she doesn't trust me with expensive materials, rulers and saws- so I am very confident that my panels were as per the book.

Pete