Ted Moores explains it very well in his book canoecraft.

I would like to build an replica of an old Chestnut canoe. I have the
full size boat to refer to but am not sure how to take off proper
measurements . Could someone suggest where to find information or clue me
in. Help would be much appreciated.

Rey

Hi
The prefered method with small boats are to measure from a center line
going from fore to aft. At various stations you tigh a knot and then
measure the distance from the string to the inside hull ---- guess you
can make a temp degree measure so when you measure at a specific
station you also note it's angle , guess you see the point it is and
alway's been the prefered way to measure small open boats no reson for
waterlines as these will show when you digitize the measures.
Do the measures with 10 or 20 deg from a temp angle measure use a
spline instead of a string marks instead of knots and there be a lot
more accurancy.

Best regards
Per Corell
Cyber-Boat
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Cyber-Boat/

Eh forgot to mention, that the reson to do it this way is, that the
same measures can be used for small boards holding the planking when
you then build the boat, it was the prefered way to make small boats as
replacing the measures with length planks made a building jig strait
from the easy measures.

P.C.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Cyber-Boat/