When Geoff Kerr and I were planning the construction of PocketShip #1, he was in the middle of a big stitch-and-glue boat of about the same general size and shape of PocketShip. Unlike PocketShip, it had no keel or keelson, and he was at seven's and nine's to reach the interior structure---it couldn't support his weight no matter what. He had to build a scaffolding over the boat so he could lay on his belly and reach down into the hull without putting any weight on it.
In that context, Geoff was delighted to have PocketShip's keelson to stand on. I made the keelson as wide as possible, and he was able to climb in and balance on that while he worked inside the hull.
No scaffolding needed, but make sure you have a really solid step-ladder so you can safely make the long stride down to the keelson.
As soon as you have everything stitched in, you can put in some temporary floorboards spanning the floor timbers and that gives you a solid working platform. As I told a correspondent this morning, it could be a lot worse: at big yards, where they build 40-footers in female molds, they sometimes have to suspend someone from a rope sling to work on the interior.
![Bow - Low Res.JPG](./download/file.php?id=328&sid=054e6daeb9937e02bd7ef09776cf439c)
- Bow - Low Res.JPG (339.06 KiB) Viewed 15828 times