Hi Stokley

I had an extreme wider deck (about 1" in the middle) than the hull with my fifth build (a stripped Guillemot). The images show an easy way to geth both together. Pack straps and short scrap wood pieces create enough pressure to get way enough pressure to align deck and hull. Do not forget to underlay the little wood pieces used to create the pressure onto the seam with some plastic sheets. Otherwise they will become a part of your boat :-)). The method works for all kinds of builds.

The spreading deck/shrinking hull issue is really common - it has happened on both my builds.  Having at least one extra set of hands, two sets if you can find more people, really helps with this part of the process. Get the deck/hull joint lined up dry with no epoxy until it's all together. 

What I did was to start at the bow and stern and get those lined up.  I used a combination of clear packing tape or a roll of shrink wrap (you can get it at Home Depot or the like) to hold the hull/deck together on the outside as I worked.  Or you could use wire stitches, but I found that was tricky to get the wire threaded so I used the tape instead.  Then work your way in toward the cockpit area, lining up the deck and hull and taping/wrapping every six inches as I worked.  When you get to areas that don't line up, I used a thin putty knife, or a drywall spreader works well too, that I slipped into the joint and pried in the appropriate direction to get the seam lined up. Having the bevel on these joints helps hold them in place once you get them there I had to clean the edges up to return them to the correct bevel before I started this step. 

When the joint required more pressure, I had my son climb into the cockpit and push out on the hull while I pushed in on the deck until I got everything lined up.  It takes some effort, but it will all come together.  If you don't have a helper it's really tough, but you might try wedging some sticks into the inside of the hull to help spread it out while you push the deck together (a helper is much easier).

Once everything is together and taped in place on the outside, I ran a strip of packing tape along the entire seam on the outside to prevent any leackage of epoxy from the next step, which was to fillet and apply the fiberglass tape/epoxy to the inside of the seam.  This is a messy step, make sure you have all skin surfaces covered.  I used a stick with a small brush duct taped to the end to push the fiberglass tape into the ends of the boat, and it was still messy. 

If no matter how hard you try, the seam has a small amount of overlap, you can fix it after you get the inside seam filleted and epoxied by sanding the outside smooth and/or filling gaps with thickened epoxy before fiberglassing the outside. 

Good luck!

  Hi Kathy,

  On my last duck I had the same problem but with 6mm Sapele, hard stuff to form. I used a wire tensioner inside the deck assembly and some wood spreaders cut and beveled to match the temporary forms (and placed in the same location as them.) This worked well and I was able to get the job done by myself. The wooden spreaders came out once the stitches were in place but I left the wire in and tight for a full day after taping.

  PIC

  The wood spacers were held in place with screws through the holes left when the temp forms were removed. The wire tensioner ran through new holes I had to put in the deck assembly. The wire loops around the outside of the deck where I reinforced it with some popsicyle type mixing sticks to spread the load of the wire. I beleive if I hadn't done that the wire would have ripped through the deck.

Anybody have recommendations on how to avoid this 'deck spreading' in the first place?  Someone recommended fiberglassing the deck on its top surface before removing from the form, and then doing the undersurface later.  Does that make sense?

Waiting for my first kayak (Shearwater Sport Hybrid) kit to arrive.

Hickory

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.  What I seem to be seeing is that you're putting the deck/hull together dry, not putting the silica thickened epoxy along the edge of the hull like it shows in the assembly instructions, then doing the filleting and taping.  Is that right?  Are you trying to get the filleting in the bow all the way to the end, or stopping a little short and depending on the fiberglass wrap to keep the bow together?  The book also says the tape will end about a foot or so from each end.  I'm  concerned about how to seal those seams at the very ends.  Can you get it all to fit dry, then go back and loosen the stitches/plastic at the ends and lift them enough to inject some epoxy into the joint?  

I like the wire tensioner idea, too.  I'd thought of doing that and glad to see I'm not the first.

To see what I've done so far and tell me if I've missed something or messed up, I've been blogging the process with pics at

[email protected]

Thanks again for the help.

to Hickory

I've built four kayaks so far (two cedar strippers and two plywood stitch and glue). I always glassed the deck's outside when the deck was still on the form or sticthed to the hull. All decks got wider than the hull. But this is not a real problem. As I've already shown one can put both together dry with packet tape and little wood pieces. I did this alone - without any problems.

The wood sticks allow you to get way more pressure on the parts than with the tape alone. Tape alone is often not enough. It's simple physics.

My process

Start at the ends of the boat and make one side to fit. Then make the other side the same way. Cover the full ength with soem tape the prevent expoxy leakage. After this put some unthickened epoxy with a brush on the full length of the seam (inside of the boat). Then cut a glass band of the right length (about 3 inches away from the boat's tip to the middle of the boat plus about 2 " inches for overlap. Cut a bande for the front and the rear part of the boat. Spread some plastic on your workbench and wet the band with epoxy. Roll the band up. Put one end in the middle of the boat (insode), and roll it out with a stick that has a bent brush at one end. You can roll the band near to the tip of the boat this way. Do the same with the second band for this side - don't forget to overlap the bands a bit in the middle of the boat.

Do the other side the same way.

To reinforce the tips make and end pour into each of them.

That's all, no big deal :-))

Enjoy your build!

I've built a wood duckling, and had to wrestle the deck down as many other folk have done - it's just what happens as you are forming these complex shapes from flat sheets. I've also done a SW hybrid sport. It was much easier to fit that deck, because there is much less tension in it. I used a load of luggage straps and some sticky tape, and it all came in more easily than the duckling. There's a picture at the bottom of page 1 on my build blog https://forum.fyneboatkits.co.uk/viewtopic.php?id=151 With any of these activities, try to use clamps and straps and spreader bars to pull the wood into shape, then nip the wires up to hold it. That way you don't rip the ply, or have the ties snap off just as you get them wound up tight.

I recently completed a Wood Duck 10 with strip deck and I avoided problems by ignoring instructions and constructing the cockpit assembly and fixing it to bulkheads and formers before  adding the deck strips.

The deck held it shape well and i had no problems fitting it to hull.

 I chose to leave out the rear deck hatch and create a bouyancy chamber by fitting a solid bulkhead behind the seat- this meant I couldn't tape the inside of the deck/hull join -  so I fitted small sheer clamps and use plenty of thickened resin.  Result was fine with only a few ounces of extra weight

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.  I got the deck tack welded to the hull yesterday with no big problems, mostly thanks to several dry fittings and some of your suggestions.  I did cut and use spacers in the hull where the temp bulkheads came out to keep the hull spread, and also used the wire tensioners to bring the deck shear panels in to where they belonged.  I'd planned to use mostly plastic wrap to tie it down, but wasn't happy with the fit so went ahead and used wire to tie it down.  At this point I'm using .032 stainless steel safety wire and aircraft wire twisters (ran out of the copper stuff long ago) and that is working well.  I was pleased with the final fit. On to filleting and taping the joint in a couple of days.  

   JBS,

   Apologies to you and Kathy for getting your names mixed up. Good on you for getting past the hardest part of the build. Once the fillet/taping tools are put away it's all downhill.

Hi all:   I have had similar issues with the 2 WD12s that I'm putting together, and like others here I've used a combination of sticks and straps to get things in alignment for joining.  After several abortive attempts I've settled on this:  Clean inside of hull with alcohol and you can use packing tape to anchor braces, it will stick long enough to let the epoxy and tape setup.  Use lots of sticks and lots of tape - yes, you'll have to clean up some stickyness after, but alcohol does a pretty quick job. I 'tab' the ends of the tape and peel carefully, don't wait too long to remove, and it come 98% off. Do NOT use hot glue - not because it can't be cleaned up, but its' hard to get up in the bow after things are set long enough to get it without getting claustrophobic or excess fumes. 

Again, use lots of sticks, they will round out the curves better and if each one is not carrying too much load they are much less likely to slip.   For my next build (if this problem is present)  I will probably seek or make more elegant spreaders.- something adjustable (the sticks are all trial and error cut to length).

Oh, and yes, those are faux sheer clamps in the boat, we're putting a sail kit on this one and needed the reinforcement.  

HI again.  I posted on 7/5/14 about this with a picture - but really wasn't happy with my results, so I rethought it and improved.  It may not be worth the trouble for you unless you plan on building more than one boat.

The original sticks and tape method did not result in a nice smooth curve - so I wanted to spread the pressure out and fair the curve better. Second, the tape CAN slip, so you have to work fast, third the sticks and curves are not infinitely adjustable.

This method works better in that you get the sticks close, and then slide them along the temp brace to adjust length and point of pressure. I’m fastening my foot braces with screws through the hull, so with this method I can use those holes to temp fasten the braces in place.  I used 3/16 hard board for this 4 ¼” tall.  The catch at the top is 1" tall and glued in place. The brace is pretty stiff laterally, but very flexible.  Last I back the top 2 inches with stickyback sand paper. Warning, it will mar the inside of the hull, particularly if you slide it around - so you may need to touch up after wards. You may want to secure teh bottom edge with packing tape to ensure it doesn't move on you. 

   OK, I'm missing something. On my WD12 I stitched the deck to the hull and tacked it in place with epoxy woodflour mix. After that had cured a couple of days, I took out the stitches and applied the fillets and glass tape. The tacks held everything in the correct position while I did that.

Why all the sticks and stuff?

Laszlo