These boats are assembled by "stitching" the panels together with wire, to form the basic shape, and then glueing the panels together at the seams. The first step is to drill a little hole, every 6 inches for most of the length, and every 2 inches at the ends of each panel. This is the first step where precision is important, if you don't drill the holes in alignment, then the panels will not line up exactly when you pull the stitches tight. The panels are expected to be aligned to at least within 1/16th of an inch over the entire 14 ft. In addition, along the stitch seams, the edges need to be exactly even. There was a lot of fiddling with this - loosening stitches, tugging a panel 1/16 inch this way, pushing this edge out ever so slightly, re-tightening, over and over. I was never fully satisfied, but finally gave in when I couldn't seem to "fix" one thing without moving another. And it is amazing, because these flat panels all come together with the stitches to form a boat.
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