First time poster, long time lurker - I've always appreciated the wide ranging free exchange of information here. I'm a rookie S&G builder, never built anything in my life before, and extremely tool challenged, and it's primarily the fact this site, and others, exist that gave me the courage, if you will, to try this.
I'm building an arctic tern 17 - after loose stitching the deck panels, I taped deck to hull, but the hull was seriously narrower than deck aft of stern temp form, so had to force the fit between large stern temp form and small stern temp form (with several wire stitches both sides). I epoxied deck panel seam/chines, but I must have removed deck too soon before epoxy had cured enough, because the deck spread back to being too wide, as if I hadn't forced the fit. Now, when I loose fit the deck back on, in that same area there's a good 3/8 inch overlap on each side of the deck over the hull; that overlap starts 10 inches aft of temp form, and runs another 25 inches or so til the fit is okay. I'm hoping someone has some advice as to how to proceed.
Seems to me I can:
1. when it's time to retape deck to hull, put in temporary "spreader" at proper place in hull to force it wider to fit. I'd probably epoxy something in place, then remove it when I put in the rear hatch. I don't know if forcing a fit like that by using a temporary spreader would, over time, put too much pressure on the hull/deck joint. Or
2. use a heat gun or something to soften the aft deck chine/seam epoxy, and once softened, use a web strap to tighten it up, holding in place, til the epoxy hardens. Or
3. some combination of the above?
Any thoughts/advice are much appreciated!