fitting a deck

thanks for letting me join this forum.
I have a question re. putting a fwd. deck in a 16 ft lund aluminun boat.
I want to cut the plywood to fit the curve of the hull,how do I transfer the curve to the straight plywood? is there a special scribe or is there a cheaper way to do it, i know its a silly question, but i am stumped.
thanks for any help

Clint in az

 

Lay the plywood over the boat and trace the edge with a pencil.

 

ok that makes sense,but the only way to do that is on the gunwale,,,will the curve be the same, 15 inches below the gunwale?? thats my problem

 

There are several ways to do it, but by fair the most accurate and easiest is the joggle stick.

The drawing shows how it works. Basically, you take an oddly shaped (intentional) stick and using a piece of scrap smaller then the space you want to place the new, well fitted piece and mark all over it, recording the perimeter as you go. Move the marked up scrap, to the piece you'll be cutting and transfer the marks and then connect the dots with a batten. You don't need a ruler, scribe or anything else other then the joggle stick and the layout board, which has to be placed where the new, well fitted piece will live.

Another way is to use a compass or divider. The problem with this method is you have to keep the divider perfectly square with a perpendicular all the way around the perimeter, which is nearly imposable without some errors. What most do to avoid this is cut well outside the cut line and trial fit until they get it.

The diagram presented should be self explanatory for joggle stick use. It's one of those "goes with every plans set" pages I provide.

Yet another method is possible if you have a ridge or lip all around the perimeter is to place a hunk of light plywood or cardboard over it and transfer the impression. I use women's lipstick for this. Just smear it on the edge to be defined, place the cardboard of plywood on, trying not to wiggle it as it goes down, then press on it to transfer the lip stick. And yes, before anyone asks, I have a bunch of it, it goes well with my fishnets and rubber boobs. I'm a ruby red kind of guy. Now, take that mental image with you to bed tonight and tell me how your dreams work out . . .

 

on second thought, doing that would at least get me close,,I have some junk wood i could try,and make a pattern.
this is getting to be the project from hell.

thanks
Clint

 

If your going to use the junk wood to make a pattern method, a good trick is to rough cut it close but a bit small (1/4"-1/2") then use 1" masking tape to fit to your hull for a pattern. Still might need a bit of fine tuning, but you'll be very close first fit.

 

thanks i'll give that try
Clint

 

What I did with my Lund

Well, it's been about a month since your post so you probably already cut out and layed down your front deck area. How did you wind up doing it?
I actually did the same thing on my 1983 "Alaskan" 18' Lund (center console.) I just used industrial paper or a thicker shipping paper to cut my template...adding and cutting to fit exactly. I cut 1/2 of the deck (port side) and copied it over to the Starboard side...then translated to plywood and cut out the two roughly triangular shaped pieces...they fit in exactly.
One thing I found out was you can't get the whole thing covered with 1 sheet of plywood, I needed to buy to pieces to get it covered in there.
A short time later, that plywood rotted, so I layed down slats of 3" treated lumber. It looks o.k, but I want to experiment with something: I plan on dying 3"wide X 1/4" thick slats of Beachwood (Beachwood is very white and the dye would make for an eye-popping bright look.) I will then treat the wood with wood oil and adhere/glue those newly dyed slats (almost like a veneer) over the the existing 3" wide slats (which are screwed down to the aluminum framing under the floor.)
the boat is stored in a boathouse so weathering should not be too bad and the deck does not see real battering, but all this may put on extra weight.
I will show you the end result when it's done. It's ok to Email me back directly.