This is a follow up post from several months ago.  I continue to have a problem closing the stern on my wood duck 10.  Despite soaking the wood in very hot water, drilling multiple extra holes for stitches (so many I ran out of wire long before starting on the deck), having two people pushing as hard as possible, the gap between the bottom panel and side panel can not be closed.  If I force it closed at the transom (wired or not), the wood overlaps greatly about 10 inches forward of the stern.  The rest of the boat wired up ok, and I was very carfull with the but joints so the panels are true.  At this point I am considering cutting the panel down where it overlaps which would allow me to close the gap at the transom but I am worried this would change the shape of the stern and mess up the deck alignment.  Another option would be to fabricate a fill in piece and plane down the top of the stern side panel at the stern where it stands about 1/2 inch proud of the transom.  If I push the panels together as hard as possible with a helper not allowing any overlap forward the gap is greater than 1/2 inch.   Any other ideas would be much appreciated.