How to Transfer the Outline of Transom

The next step is to transfer the profile or the outline of the transom to the mocked-up section. Do this with carbon paper the same way you transfer the carving design to the block. Darken this outline with a soft pencil. Then shellac it to prevent it from smudging as you work on the mock-up to fit the various pieces of the carving to it. Transfer the outline of the transom to your drawing paper on which you intend to make your design. At the top of your drawing paper, lay out the curve of the transom from the template. Draw in the chord.

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Then make your design, keeping well within the limits of the outline of the transom. Here, I would suggest that you make the design on a piece of tracing paper so that you can, from time to time, lift the drawing away from the board and lay it on the mock-up to see if it is what you want to make. There is some difference in the appearance and dimension of the design when seen in a flat plane from when the design is placed on the curved plane of the transom.

After you have roughed out the outline of the proposed carving on the drawing paper, extend vertical lines from the extremities of the design and from the center of the design to the top of the paper so that these vertical lines cross the chord and intersect the arc (which represents the true transom). You now can see how much or how little the carving blank will have to be back-cut and how much additional stock must be added (built up) to give you the proper thicknesses with which to work.

This step can be done mathematically, I suppose, but I find that the trial-and-error method works out quite as well. By studying the proposed design and the varying thicknesses of stock necessary to develop the carving you will have it fixed in your mind just what is required of you to do the work. In the illustrations I have prepared for this phase of the work I have used a relatively simple form, that of a shield on which dolphins are carved in mezzo-relievo, for the reason that the principles involved in this sort of carving apply to any other form as well. My feeling is that for the first endeavor you are going to use a simple, straightforward design that is well within your capacity to produce. Do not try to undertake a large, involved piece of work that will exceed your capacity to make. Nothing is more discouraging to do than to come up against a problem in your work that is beyond your knowledge and skill to overcome.

After all, if you want to make a more detailed carving later on you can sell the yacht and start again. Or you can remove the prior piece and replace it with a more ambitious work. After you have established the form of the carving and indicated some of the detail, determine how you are going to build up the carving blank if that is necessary. This you do from the measurements on the chord. I allow at least one half inch more stock than is required at any point on the block. More, if it works out that way. The block can be built up from the bottom or from the top. In any case, when the several pieces are to be jointed, follow the same processes as are described elsewhere in the text.