8 + 8 = 16LT

Making the scarf joints to glue the 8 foot blanks into 16 foot blanks has the reputation of being one of the hardest parts about building this boat from plans (rather than the kit, which comes with pre-cut panels that go together via jigsaw puzzle joints), but it's not really hard at all. It took more time to recondition my plane and sharpen the blade than it did to make the scarf joints. A sharp tool is the key - mine's sharp enough to cut your eye if you look at it too long. And notice in the pic below that I put it down on its side, not on the shoe. If ever I put a plane down on the shoe when my grandfather, who was a carpenter, was around, he would walk over and grab my hand and make me pick it back up and put it down correctly. Teaching via external control of my motor neurons. My grandfather is the old guy in the middle. I'm the little pissed-off kid on the left. Apparently, I wasn't old enough to hold a turnip of my own.

So with your sharp tool at the ready, you measure 1 1/4 inches and mark a line on each panel, offset a stack of panels to these lines, with the bottom one aligned with the edge of your workbench, and start planing. The stair-step panel arrangement holds the plane at the proper angle, and it's really quite easy to cut the scarfs uniformly - the ply reveal gives you a constant indicator of how even you're cutting. (BTW, I built the workbench with this project in mind: it's about 12' long and 14" wide - plenty adequate for the project but it doesn't take up my whole porch.) 

Once the scarfs are cut, the leading edges are paper thin, so they're obviously really fragile. To keep from dinging them up, I clamped some scrap wood on the ends to protect them until it's time to do the glue-up.