hi mark,

i have built the arctic hawk...its a beautiful boat.

you need to plane it mostly adjacent and forward of the cockpit to match the curvature of the deck....so that when you attach the deck it sits flush with the gunwhales.   

the back of an arctic hawk is basically flat (aft of the cockpit)...so it will just be a little planing to level out the top of the gunwale becuase the sides of the boat are not vertical.

if you do it right, when you place the deck on, you will not see an open seam on the outside of the boat or the inside of the boat where the deck attaches to the the sides.  there is not a lot of planing needed on the boat...so be careful and take a little off at a time and check-fit often.

picture of my arctic hawk below:

i hope that helps

h

   yes, that helps a lot. Your boat looks great, hope my turns out as well. Thanks