Dressmaking and Arguably The Most Important Piece of Wood ....so far ...

The very first piece of wood that will be part of the boat has just been rough cut out of a sheet of Marine Plywood, and here it is.

'Seagull's' Transom 

To those that understand such terms, this is Seagull's transom, that is to say the piece of wood at the back end of the boat.

Here is an example in real life that I found on the Internet

I realise that this is all a bit confusing to my buddies who aren't really familiar with boat building. "If this is the first bit of wood, what's all the other stuff you've been building?" I hear them ask. So the next bit is for them.

OK think of dressmaking ... think of the boat as an elaborate dress. You cut out the pieces of dress using patterns you buy, which is the same as me cutting out the transom from the plans I bought.    Now you might have to have a dressmaker's dummy specially designed for the exact shape of the person you are making the dress for:

Let's not call it a dressmaker's dummy ... let's call it a 'building jig'

So this is my dressmaker's dummy (building jig).

Does that make sense? without meaning to be patronising.