June 2000
On building  "OTTER" the 1.5 meter designed by John Lewis I thought I would describe my building methods to try and help others who might like to try their hand at building one. This style of boat could fill the gap between the ONE METRE and SIX METRE. 
The hull was planked over MDF shadows, using my SIX METRE building board which is 20 by 150 by 1730mm long MDF with two 35 by 20mm pine stabilisers glued underneath. The shadows were cut deep enough to allow access into the hull

during building, I use elastic bands to hold the planks in place during building, (see pic. No 1). The elastic bands are slipped over nails put into the shadow blocks, (see pic. No1). The hog or keel was made up of two planks, glued together  when fitted in place, (see pic No1&2).
The bow reinforcement was made of hardwood 15 by 10mm in section, length is subject to

depth of shadows. The bow reinforcement was glued and gusseted to the hog, the deck end was held in place by putting a 2mm dia. pin into the building block leaving 8mm protruding to fit into a corresponding hole in the bow reinforcement, (see pic. No3).  This stops it moving during planking. The transom was left open
behind shadow No 12. The final transom was to be fitted when planking was
complete and the hull was removed from the building board, (see pic No 6).
A clothes peg was used to hold planks onto the pre-shaped bow reinforcement
during bonding, (see pic No 3). The planks protruded 5mm beyond the bow
reinforcement so that they could be trimmed off later. My choice of plank was 12 by 4mm cedar, which proved very easy to apply as the design is quite simple.
Planking started at deck line, while laying the planks some were tapered at each end