How did he do it?! (Patreon)

Many people were very curious about how Zeal managed to drill the holes for the chainplate fastenings so accurately! Well, apart from his obvious skill and experience, there are some simple tricks which can really help when doing something like this. 

To get the angle and position of the frames relative to the chainplates, Zeal just drilled a small hole through the top plank right next to the frame, and put a metal rod through it. You can see the rod in the 1st photo on the outside of the boat and in the 3rd photo on the inside. He hung some small weighted lines down from the rod on the outside, which helped him eyeball the angle and position of the frame at any height. Then it was just a case of doing a bit of drawing to calculate the angle necessary to intersect the centre of the hanging knee on the inside. The bevel gauge was set to this final angle and temporarily attached to the hull, so Zeal could follow that line by eye. 

The hole that Zeal drilled for the small rod was later plugged, and is completely safe - it's really no different than any one of the many fastening holes that go though the planking.  

A few people also asked why we couldn't just drill from the inside. Well, although it's important to centre the bolts on the hanging knees on the inside of the boat, it's EVEN MORE important to centre them on the chainplates themselves on the outside of the boat (both structurally and aesthetically) - which is why we had to start those holes on the outside to make sure that they are spot on!