Butt Straps and Lasers

Been thinking about the butt-straps, I don’t want them to look like a horrible joint down the middle of the boat.
I thought about shaping them but cant waste too much time on a design that may be over-the-top for this craft.

Decided to stencil a design in wood stain instead, I am quite pleased with the result.
I intended to scribe a line to stop the stain running but when discussing this earlier Dave said that it may weaken the joint, so I dabbed off any excess stain before applying it to the strap to avoid it running too far, it worked pretty well,

I can now section the length of strap to the plank sizes and place a slight bevel on the edges for the chines,

note that I used a cheap laser to align the planks

the plans call for the straps to be fixed with glue and brass nails, by glue I presume they mean epoxy resin. I cant find brass nails small enough so I got some small copper nails and will cut them to 6.5 or 7mm I can use the stencil design to place the nails,

all in all not a very productive evening but I am satisfied with what I did