Templates are your friend

At least, they are mine. Definitely.

Building a replica, particularly if it is the first qajaq (actually, the first thing) you build has its problems, but, for a guy like me, it also has some advantages. You don't get to choose (and, therefore, worry) about length, width, rocker, draft or the shape of bow and stern. Supposedly, you found all those features, at the very, very least, acceptable in the original that caught your fancy. Instead, you get to worry about reproducing them in a reasonably faithful manner.

Such a situation affords many opportunities for the use of templates. Of course, I am using most of them. Among the global uncertainty that, for good or bad, will only be solved the day the qajaq is launched, templates provide most welcome interludes of relative safety. As the pics show, shaping the stem pieces has just presented me with one of these precious moments.

And it seems to be working.

Note: Bow piece at the top, stern piece at the bottom.