BTW

Turns out I wasn't so lucky after all. While the building jig was level, it wasn't square. Luck did not intervene; Cary did. He said every time he looked at it, he knew it wasn't right, and he proved it to me with a construction framing square. This, of course, broke my heart and moved me to tears, but Cary said he would help me make it square, and that the tweaking should take only half a day. I made him promise that while we do that, he must behave like a civilized human being: no name-calling, no sarcasm, no condescension or derision. He agreed, but that means he'll have to acquire a new personality, at least for half a day.

Meanwhile, I attached the forekeel to the bow transom and determined that it will fit in place accurately on the jig, square or not. The directions for building this boat are not exactly thorough and often require interpretation and initiative on my part. That is a good trick because usually I have no idea what I'm doing. For the transom-forekeel assembly, I figured out that I had to countersink some screws, although the word "countersink" had never been in my vocabulary. I did a rather blonde job of it, but nothing that a little wood putty can't fix. As always, I learned later that a special tool exists for countersinking; it's called a countersink drill bit.

BTW (which I thought meant "bites the weenie" but found out it means "by the way"), I e-mailed WoodenBoat with my question about laminating. I asked if it is really necessary to laminate the center frame and forekeel, or if you could just use already-laminated 3/4" marine plywood instead. They have not responded. Now that BTW, if you catch my drift.