: Yeah, mine took much longer than I thought, too. Part of it was that I lashed
: all the keel/chine/rib joints individually. The fir chines were quite
: stiff and I was concerned that they would move around if I used a running
: lashing.

Jim used a continuous lashing down each stringer. Although this looks great I felt that we were taking our chances with one of the strings eventually breaking. Jim went back through and tied every joint individually on the keel stringer and every third joint on the chine stringers. A little redundancy can pay off in the long run.

: Oops! I meant "knee brace", not "foot brace". I installed
: the foot brace per the instructions with no problem.

We didn't install a separate knee brace. Partly because the book is very confusing on this point. We never did quite figure out where it went.

: I ended up joining the stringers behind the stem and stern plates, as it gave
: me the best fit that way. I would imagine that this waries from boat to
: boat.

I'll post an image in the next couple of weeks on our chine stringer ends.

: I wondered about the necessity of 1.5" wide ribs. I guess if you're
: using AYC, it may be necessary, but I used 5/4 ash (1 1/16" actual
: width) which should be plenty strong. It also bent easily. I've read that
: white oak is even better in that regard.

The white oak is very sturdy and (I think) worth the small amount of extra weight.

: Did you run into any problems with rib placement? I found the directions in
: the book to be a bit vague. I ended up with a rib under my heels and
: another under my butt, both of which are undesirable. I also ended up not
: using one set of mortises I cut in the stern (no big deal, just wasted
: time and effort). Next time, I'll be much more critical than just starting
: in the center and spacing them 8" apart.

I created my own formula for rib placement. The books illustrations didn't match the text or the photos. Ill have to right out the formula one day. It worked really well and compensated for body placement and such. We ended up not using the last mortises on both ends. They just weren’t necessary. I filled those with epoxy.

Roger