The least interesting constellation

Skipping two steps tonight (more on this later, once I figure out the glue thing), I accelerated at breakneck speed to #4: draw a line that divides the upper deck in half. After brief flashbacks of vivisecting angles in Ms. Koven's geometry class, I set to.

A ridiculous ruler's ridiculous cross-section

I wrote earlier about lacking a decent ruler. What I have instead is a contraption that offers marks in 11 distinct units, including 16th-inch, three-eighths-inch, three-inch, and quarter-furlong. Somewhere among its marks hides a lesson in positional (i.e. numerical base) systems. When it lived in my classroom, students expressed a combination of confusion and mockery that I possessed such a weird implement.

Despite quirks and my frustrations, it was sufficient today. The marks aren't close enough to measure with tight precision any span save the absolute narrowest at the bow. And while Ms. Koven was reminding me that two accurate points even very close together are sufficient to define a line, I was wary of drift at the stern by the slightest alignment error at the bow. Roughly speaking, being just 1mm askew two inches from the bow would yield a ~6mm error at the stern.

Fortunately, there were several spots along the deck where the three-thirty-seconds-of-an-inch marks lined up with the deck's sloping outline. After taking a few measures and connecting the dots I got ... something that just looked slightly off-center. Fortunately, a second go-round on the other side felt and looked better. Measuring done!

Division accomplished

And why do all this? Starting with either side of this dividing line and working my way out, I'll lay down slender ramin to resemble deck planks. The ramin pieces are 0.6mm thick and 5mm wide. I posted earlier that the deck planking appearance comes solely from penciling things in, and that's not entirely accurate: the plank look along the long axis comes from the actual physical distinction between the pieces; along the short axis, though, I'll draw in the separations (and the nails). I imagine a more advanced builder would also cut the ramin into shorter pieces for real, distinct planks -- but, I'm not there yet.