I have a SW17, but that looks like it is where the forward bulkhead might be? If so, you can keep the piece you cut out and plane the top of the sides of the bulkhead to match your deck piece. Be careful not to change the position of the chine and all will be OK!  If fact you can measure the new deck dimension and transfer that to the bulkhead top and then draw a line to the chine corner on the bulkhead and trim the sides of the bulkhead. That would be more precise.

The change in shape at the deck level will in no way impact the performance of your yacht!

Or you can cut a new deck piece.

Joel

The forward part of the deck panel (in front of the angle in question) connects to the side panels. The part towards the middle of the panel connect to the shear panel. Use wood flour as a thickener, don't tighten the stitches too much and carry on. You will have a bit of a gap there, but it will be hardly noticeable in the end. The ends of the shear panels may be thin enough to fill in the gap with no noticeable filler. Good Luck JRC

as JRC pointed out, that notch is actually part of the plan and is there to properly accomodate the three faceted deck -- a center panel and two shear panels.

if you have not cut the shear panels yet, i would recommend that you add to the shear panels the 'missing' section you took off when you planed off the notch......i think this will be more effective than trying to fill it in with wood filler and will look just fine.

attached is a picture of a shearwater showing how the shear panel blends into the center section.  if one looked at the center section in isolation, that little notch is where the shear panel (light strip of wood next to the hull sides) tip starts.  

h

Really not a problem, John. That sort of feature is WAY within stitch-and-glue tolerances. It won't be noticeable once you get the deck stitched together.

   Many thanks to all - full speed ahead!