Book excerpt: The second book in our Classic Boat series aimed at traditional boat lovers, builders and restorers. Lofting is an essential stage in the transition between designing and building a boat in order to turn the design plans into boat lines plans to measure off and build the full-size boat. Its a tricky art, but this book shows exactly how it is done in clear, step-by-step diagrammatic stages. Aimed specifically at the amateur DIY builder, it will enable anyone to build a boat of any size, whether power or sail. The author has been teaching lofting to boatbuilding students for over 10 years, and has found that the key to understanding is visualisation - hence the plethora of step-by-step diagrams in this book to assist the reader to grasp the concepts. Lofting will be welcomed by budding boatbuilders everywhere.