I used Renn's instructions for marking and fitting the vertical framing pieces, and I did take the time to fit a piece of scrap to the boat and then used it as a template for the real pieces. His warnings about accidentally pushing the chine up or shelf down and messing up the shape of the boat caught my eye (grinz.) The aft piece is approximately 30" ahead of the transom's top while the forward edge of the forward one aligns with the outside of my cabin's aft bulkhead. In my case, I moved Station 6 forward 10", then measured 5'11" aft of that new location to determine where this piece went. This gives me about 5' of fishing room and 5'11" (minus plywood thickness) inside the cabin between cuddy bulkhead and aft pilot house bulkhead. These framing pieces were routered, sanded, then glassed with 6-oz glass prior to cutting them out.

Finally, the bow area had to be faired in so the side panels would fit right, lay flush on the sides of the stem, and lay flush along the shelf along the whole boat. The picture shows the order in which I faired the stem and shelves. I found it easiest to fair the leading edge of the stem first, noting that this puts a flat on the front of the stem upon which I neatly marked a good centerline. Then using a straight edge from the bottom edge of the chine flat to the shelf, I planed the first 6" or so of the shelves and the side of the stem until all fit well. I finished up by using my plane (low angle block plane) and the straight edge to fair the rest of the shelves. In this boat, I had to fair just past (the original) Station 6 point to smoothly transition to the 21 degrees in the rest of the boat ...about 8' of planing. Note that I did not plane right to top edge of the shelves (the edge nearest the floor). I left about 1/8" or a little more all along the way to guarantee that I didn't mess up the fairness of the hull's curve along the sheer.

Shown here, I am following Renn's sequence of screwing a 3/8" thick 4x8 onto the front for marking. I highly recommend Renn's technique of screwing a short block midway along the bottom of this panel, then screwing it to the boat in the order he states: a) lower end of stem (nearest floor), b) upper aft corner (into a 'tab' as Renn calls the angled blocks), c) aft lower edge into shelf, then d) upper stem (furthest from floor). It all fit wonderfully along the chine and shelf, so I marked and cut the lines along the chine and the stem (shelf line to be marked and cut later ...see below.) I used a straight edge to the inner edge of the chine flat and outer shelf, with a bevel, to determine the angles for the tabs. I went ahead and installed tabs in the bow area and continuing back to about Station 8 or so.

In the second picture, both panels now have the scarfs planed into them but are not glued together. As you can see, I've cut the excess off along the shelf edge too. I rehung them for final fit and mark-up on the scarf joint so I could reproduce the alignment while gluing them up on the floor. The panels go on and off the boat quite a few times by the time they are installed permanently.

The forward 16' of side panel, now ready, was installed in exactly the way that it was fit to the boat. The stem and shelf was pre-soaked with epoxy as usual for a glue joint and I used a notched trowel to spread a milled glass/silica/epoxy mixture along these same surfaces. Once installed, I pre-soaked the chine seam with epoxy and 'tack welded' with epoxy/wood flour/silica. Clean up and let cure.

Next day, I removed all the angled 'tabs' and all the screws. Everything held! Then I installed the butt block just forward of the middle framing piece (see interior shot). Once this was on, it provided a good landing zone for the aft panel, so I presoaked and glued/screwed to put the third (aft-most) panel onto the boat. You can see the hardboard panel that I screwed over the butt block joint to ensure it's flatness.