Lady Nelson by Pitts2112 - Amati - First Build

[Pitts2112]

It's July 2025 and I've been working on (and off; mostly off) Amati's Lady Nelson since last Christmas.  First thing I want to say is a huge thank you to this community for your very generous sharing of a wealth of information on the craft.  I've spent much more time reading posts here than I have actually building the model and all of it has been a delight.  

 

I just finished the first planking, which went better than expected but I ran into a situation where I needed far more stealers on the lower hull than I expected.  I suspect I didn't properly measure the length of the ribs and stern post which led to tapering too narrowly at both ends.  I suspect I only measured the 10th rib and not the stern post since that's where my coverage finished when I had nearly all the planks on.  I also know I didn't cut the tapers very accurately, so their actual measurements are kind of all over the shop.  I partly corrected this by laying two untapered planks at the keel (garboard and next one above), then doing a very customized gap filler plank to finish the main hull.  Covering the stern post required 3 very short, very pointy stealers to make up the difference.  I'm pretty sure those should have been longer and more strategically placed but I didn't know I was going to need them until it was too late to plan ahead.  It seems to have done the job overall just not according to standard procedure, I think.  (see pictures below).  

 

Question for the group - is my assessment above correct or is this the result of some other mistake I made (or combination of mistakes)?  

 

Pics:  First planking, showing wide variation in coverage toward the last couple of planks.  I think I tapered too much on both ends which led to them not coming far enough down the bow and stern post and being too wavy overall.  Also I think I only measured the last rib instead of the sternpost so only tapered to the end of the rib:

 

 

 

 

Measured gaps between planks and keel when I only had a c9uple more planks to lay.

 

Finished first planking with stealers laid.  After sanding it came out alright, I think.  Will this be good enough as a base for the second planking or do I need to do something else to it before starting?