It occurs to me that you could level a good, straight board with your starting point, the board angled back to the stern, and run the string across its top as you went. The humble string has aided building since the pyramids and before. Way cool! My father's a bamboo rod maker. He, too has quite a collection of planes for his craft. Steve Tyree, P-15 #2098 "Amy Ann"

A while back I worked in Mexico on a powerboat tooling project, and in the absence of a transit we used a string to establ;ish the WL. We taped it to the stem with masking tape and one man got on the other end and slowly bent it around the boat, keeping it level, and another put little tabs of masking tape on it to keep it from sliding. Sounds hokey but it worked great. It was done by an old Mexican boatbuilder, who was also a master with a plane. Nearly everything I could do with a router he could do with a plane, and usually just as fast and as good. Makes you think.

Jerry