In my older edition of Canoecraft, what's provided is most of a conventional
table of offsets.
You do need to loft and fair the 'body plan', the sections through the boat
at seven or eight stations. You'll need a 2' x 2' sheet of plywood. Paint
it flat white. I didn't find whether the given offsets are to the outside or
the inside of the planking. I'd ask the author. If to the outside, you'll
need to deduct plank thickness when taking patterns for mold stations.
I wouldn't try to loft/fair the waterlines or buttocks. When fairing the
body plan, be aware of the relation between successive ststions. Rather. i'd
get out and erect the station molds, then using a planking strip or batten,
look for bumps and hollows in the 'setup'. These need to be trimmed or
shimmed.
Any book on lofting will cover this basic stuff. Chapelle's 'Boatbuilding'
is probably easiest to find.

sebastian wrote:

hi im planning on building a canoe. Specifically, I would like to
build the 16 foot 'prospector' from moore's 'canoecraft' book, but the
design is in the form of a lofting table.

I know there are many books out there on lofting, but i have found
them to be more convoluted and complex than i need for a simple little
symmetrical canoe. The full size plans are available for purchase,
but I would I like learn how to loft. Can anynoe provide a brief
tutorial on how to loft canoe plans or maybe provide links to any
known web pages which *clearly* and as simply as possible methodically
describe how to loft -ideally canoes and specifically from the tables
in canoecraft- or other small simple boats?