That's how it works on the WD12, so that sounds reasonable.

Laszlo

There are several reasons:

1: dry fit to allow you to fix any problems without the stress induced while trying to get it right while the epoxy is going bad.

2: When tack welded or tabbed, to make sure the panels are stressed the same as they will be later, while the epoxy sets up.

3: obviously the last time to put it all together.

Possibly due to experience, but the easiest boat to get the deck and hull to fit was my Shearwater Sport.   On my wife's WD12 I left them apart for several weeks, and they did not want to match up at all. So, try to get all of your interior stuff done some what orderly so they don't sit for too long. Good luck, looks good so far.

Thanks for the responses.  I'm going to fillet the hull and glass the cockpit tonight, and hope to do the same for the deck within the week so that I can tack it all together by next weekend.

For speed and to relieve the tedium of all that wire stitching, we've been using stretch-wrap to hold hull and deck "clamshells" together during the multiple mating sequences.  The stuff's cheap and readily available at the home center or office supply store.

John,

thanks for the reply - I had used the stretch wrap when i tacked the hull and deck and put them together temporarily, but found wrapping around the copper wires somewhat challenging as they kept piercing the wrap, which would make  it tear.

Do you think I could use just wrap when I tack the hull and deck together in preparation for the interior filleting of the hull/deck joints, or would I definitely want to stitch at that point?

Thanks,

Gero 

>
>I had used the stretch wrap when i tacked the hull and deck and put them together temporarily, but found wrapping around the copper wires somewhat challenging as they kept piercing the wrap, which would make  it tear.>
>

True, though my somewhat inelegant solution was just to use loads of stretchy-wrap.  Note in the photo that the wrap is more or less in between the stitching.

>
>Do you think I could use just wrap when I tack the hull and deck together in preparation for the interior filleting of the hull/deck joints, or would I definitely want to stitch at that point?
>>

I would go with the stretch-wrap.  Faster and equally effective.  I intend to convert the instruction manuals for both Shearwaters and Wood Ducks to that scheme, and in fact the nicely-lit photos above were staged for that purpose.

One thing I learned from watching Eric Schade's astonishingly facile assembly of the Shearwaters and Wood Ducks in dozens of the build-your-own classes is that the nicer a job you do on the panel edge-beveling, the less fight you get in the assembly throughout the process.  I taught a Wood Duck class where I allowed somewhat desultory beveling, and was punished with a lot of sweating during the assembly sequence.  (The CNC machine actually does the beveling for you in the Night Heron SG, Petrel SG, and Petrel Play SG, but you pay a couple hundred bucks extra for the privilege.)

   Highly informative this one about stitching, nicely- lit photos really serve their purpose well. Not only this but I got more things to understand and observe through... Thanks a lot.

   Very much impressive it is heresy ! It is quite useful and important infomation here about sails, kayaks,boats etc. and their different beautiful and elegant shapes and being light weight and made of rot free wood and so on ....! Thanks a lot.