7. Lacing The Bottom

The bottom of the boat, both panels “1-2”, are now stitched together using copper wire. The picture at the right shows “1-2” completely stitched.

This is accomplished by inserting the cut copper wire through the pre-drilled holes, and with pliers, twisting the wire. Only twist the wire one to one and a half turns leaving the joint quite loose at this time. They will be tightened later. If you tighten them now, the plywood will break (trust me on this one).

When cutting the copper wire, I set my small square to the required 2 1/2" length. This made cutting the wire quick as the measurement was “automatic”.

I kept all my pieces of copper wire in one of the epoxy/paint trays mentioned earlier.

Once wired together and unfolded, parts “1-2”, should look like this, which is pretty much the same as the photo shown with the text instructions.