Once all twelve molds were made I began standing them up and spacing them out on the shed floor. My big shed now began to feel small as the 34’ Dory revealed itself leaving a foot at either end. Perhaps I should have moved the gable further back. next followed a few days of leveling up the molds - I set up a tight string for the water line running the length of the boat in the center then was able to measure off this. Then using a spirit level and careful eye set the mold positions before fixing them all together with various battens.

After a Shed warming party, mid december, I started to loft the boat full size on three sheets of hardboard on the floor. This was easy as being a dory the boat has a flat bottom and straight sides. I drew out the twelve ‘stations’ that give cross sections through the boat roughly every 800mm down the length of the boat.. These become the molds forming the shape of the boat. The pictures describe this better!

After the weeks worth of Christmas and New year celebrations and headaches that follow I started constructing the male molds. I made these using 6x3/4” flooring that didn't ‘make the grade’ from a local sawmill. By simply laying them down and screwing them together on the drawing gave accurate and quick results.