Okay, I'll jump in with a bit of my recent experience with cambered deck wrestling on my Ches 17 last month. first, I truely impressed myself with the ability of the block plane to achieve the perfect radius on the shear clamps. When it came time to fasten the deck (I chose to use the nails, as they give a nice ol' nautical look as many old wooden boats do) I checked the deck position, flipped it over, coated the underside w/ epoxy, then applied colloidal silica-thickened epoxy to the top surfaces of the shears. I placed the deck down carefully so as not to spread the thicken epoxy, but some spread anyway. While I wanted to be liberal with the glue, I think I used too much as I fastened the deck and found some oozing out. But that was only a beginning.

Well, here's my relevant input to the preceeding posts, I used all of the straps and rope I had (only 3) to keep the deck in place but realized at this point that I wish I had more since these straps are needed to also bend the last 3/4-inch of deck over the shear camber even after nailing. Perhaps my nails could have been closer to the edge but I was concerned for an errant nail going thru the hull. With a 1/32"-1/16" gap now between the deck and the shears (except where the straps nicely kissed the two together) and no other straps or rope available, I used what was available: duct tape. So as not to gum up the deck, I placed poly sheeting over the deck, cut to size. Then, I cinched down a strap of duct tape around the girth every six inches, starting each end at the keel and overlapping at the keel. It worked great except for two things: 1)even more glue oozed out and I could not get at it to wipe it up (the dozens of pieces of tape were in the way); and 2) some pieces of tape had left gummy deposits on the hull (but since it was coated with well-cured epoxy which hadn't been sanded yet for finishing, all I had to do was wipe it away with acetone).

So, you can go through a roll of duct tape or go through a considerable amount of rope. About the oozed thickened epoxy deposits that dripped down from the joint, well, I finally tackled that problem this past weekend with 6 hours of sanding using a Willson HEPA air purifying respirator, a new Makita ROS, and 4 sheets of 80 grit sandpaper (okay, that included sanding the whole hull, but clearly more than needed)! At least I could listen to the one ALCS win by my cursed Red Socks using earphones during that vibrating ordeal. ...pcourt

_____________
> I pre-cut about 60 five foot lengths of one quarter inch nylon rope (cheap
> at Home Depot) and knotted a loop on one end. I placed each length around
> the hull and deck panel starting at the center of the boat, threaded the
> free end of the rope through the looped end, and cinched down hard. I
> attached the aft deck panel first. Once I was satisfied that the hull-deck
> joint was okay I secured the rope with a simple overhand knot while
> keeping tension on the rope. It's a good idea to trial fit the deck panels
> first before you glue to make sure the sheer clamps have been properly
> beveled and you have a seamless deck-to-hull joint. It was somewhat
> unnerving applying the force required to bring the deck panels flush with
> the hull. The fore panel cracked in one place, but fortunately it was at
> the overhang and was later sawed off. This method also produced a slight
> gap between the top of each bulkhead and the bottom of the deck panel. I
> simply glued on an extension and filleted generously. I am varnishing the
> boat to bring out the full beauty of the wood. You've been to the CLC
> showroom so you know how nice they look. You always have the option to
> paint later. Please post your results! I would like to know if this worked
> for you.