I'm most definitely not a math whiz. I learned the hard way, a long time ago, that the fewer math problems I had to work when working on a model, the better.
When I'm starting a new model, the first thing I do is to get my hands onto a complete copy of the plans, reduced or enlarged to the scale of the model. (I did the same thing in the days when I was making ship drawings.) Two reasons: one, it eliminates all sorts of opportunities for errors, and two, I find it much easier to visualize what I'm doing if I have a picture of everything at model size.
When I started my little model of the frigate Hancock, back in 1977, I ordered a set of the Chapelle drawings from the Smithsonian. They were huge things, on 1/4"=1' scale. I'd decided the model would be on 3/32"=i'. So, after getting advice from my old man, the architecture professor, I took them to an architectural blueprinting firm. Those folks took photos of the drawings with a humongous camera, and made blueprints for me on 3/32"=1' scale. Now I had a nice set of plans from which I could take measurements directly.
I had the blueprint guys make me thirty copies or so. When it came time to carve the hull, I stuck sections of those prints to cardstock and cut them out to make templates. And whenever I wanted to use a drawing from some other source, I'd get a copy of it to the model scale as well.
As I remember, that whole print job (including the blueprints from the Smithsonian) cost about seventy bucks - a very significant sum for a starving grad student. Nowadays it's much simpler and cheaper. The architectural supply places (the term "blueprint" is almost obsolete now) have photocopy machines that can make prints at any scale you like in a few minutes, for small change. My guess is that an architectural print shop could make a copy of the Bluejacket plans at any scale you want for less than $5.00 - while you wait. (Just don't ask the dealer to sell you a rapidograph. He won't know what the word means.)
Once I've got at least one copy on the scale of the model, I make lots of copies of selected parts of it on that wonderful, miraculous gadget, the home printer. The Epson one I've got can make prints at any ration from 25% to 200% - and the reproduction will be proportionally right. (In the early days of Xerox, that wasn't the case. I found that out the hard way.) For my current project, I hardly touch the plans that came from the kit; I work almost entirely from 8 1/2" x 11" copies made on the printer. (Lots of Ronnberg's scrap views are on a larger scale. I can reduce them to 1/8"=1' in a few seconds. I'm lucky in one respect: my model building desk is in the same room as the computer and printer.
If you've got a set of plans on the model's scale, all sorts of problems just disappear. (Never mind what the actual and scale dimensions of the bowsprit are; just use dividers to take them from the plans.) But I do have a calculator that works in feet, inches, and fractions, and can do metric/English conversions. I got it at Lowe's for about $15.00. That eliminates some more sources of potential error.
I'm planking the decks of my little schooner with 1/32" x 1/16" basswood strips. (I'd use holly, but I don't have access to the saw to make narrow strips at the moment.) I'm not a fan of scribed sheets; the grooves are just too big. For the quarterdeck of the G.L. Tilley, some of the planks have to be tapered, and a few of the outboard ones need to be nibbed into the waterway strakes. The Ronnberg drawings show the basic principle - but I'm not following them slavishly because I'm not building the Elsie. The G.L. Tilley was different from the Elsie in lots off respects.
I've tried both Micromark table saws. I strongly recommend the more expensive one, if you can handle the finances. (Your Significant Other is likely to have something to say about that.) The little, cheaper one just isn't as precise, or as powerful. And the speed isn't adjustable, and the arbor doesn't tilt, and the fence is almost useless. The bigger saw now comes with digital readout, which makes it even better. And at the moment it's on sale: http://www.micromark.com/microlux-digital-table-saw,11530.html .
It's worth noting that a lot of serious modelers use the "Byrnes Table Saw": http://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/tablesaw.html . It unquestionably gives excellent results, but I can't see that it offers any big advantages over the larger Micromark version.
I believe the America set a "club-footed" fore staysail - like the Elsie (and like the America replica in the picture). I'm sure the rigging was a little different, but the principle is the same. If Bluejacket says it wasn't there, though, I'll take that as fact. I was working at the Mariners' Museum when BJ was working on that kit. I remember digging through the museum's various plans of her - including a sail plan drawn by none other than Donald McKay (when she was in his yard for a refit). The MM has lots of neat stuff related to that ship, including the quarterdeck skylight and a half model that was presented by George Steers to Queen Victoria.