We'll loft the body plan on a separate, smaller lofting floor.
This floor is raised 18" to make it easier to work on (not as much kneeling for our old knees!). We'll take the information from this floor to make the molds that will help shape the boat.
Here's a body plan lofting for a Whitehall pulling boat that the 2nd year class made at IYRS last fall.
In this style of lofting, we use thin sticks called battens, to work out the various lines. This view of a boat is the same type of view you'd get of a loaf of bread if you traced the outline of each slice going along the length. The left side of the lofting shows the slices from the aft end (nearest the center) going forward to about amidships. The right side of the lofting shows the slices from the bow (also nearest the center) going aft to amidships.
Here's the actual boat that these lines came from:
In the coming weeks we'll draw the boat full size on the lofting floor, and those drawings will give us enough information to do everything from making molds to determine precise bevel angles of particular parts and knowing where to drill bolt holes.