And a supplimentary question,

Do I need to steam the sheer clamps? It's a hell of a kick up at the stern. Could I cut a row of slots in the top of the sheer clamp to help it bend? It's not 'that' structural, surely!

Dear Oceanrower,

Shear clamps on Shearwater 17'? I have built the regular 17 (not the hybrid) and there are no shear clamps. Just some tricky fillets and glass tape in some hard to reach spots along the hull/deck interface.  I know the cheaspeake design has shear clamps do you mean that?

looking at my SW 17, if you do need to do shear clamps, the bow would be fine, but the stern does have a difficult looking bend.

I guess you really need someone who has done a hybrid SW 17 to pipe up.

Joel

   Hi Joel,

The manual I have definitely has 12mm x 18mm sheer clamps.

I can understand that on a complete stitch and glue kayak that the 45' bevel would make sense. I just really don't understand why I would need to do that when, only a few pages later, I'm told to bevel the other way to follow the deck forms!

let me take your questions one at a time:

chamfers/bevels - the 45 degree bevels should only be on the inside of the plywood-to-plywood seams.   the top of the side panels should be beveled to match the deck forms and that beveling should be in conjunction with beveling the shear clamp to match the curve of the deck forms.  so while i don't have the manual you have in front of me, your reading ahead and 'puzzling it through' is correct.   the build gallery (construction pictures and some of the you-tube building resources (where people document their construction) confirm your conclusion.

do i need to steam the sheer clamps - typically no.  they may be a bit more flexible then you think and should be able to make it.   if not, you could cut some slots, or heat the wood or steam it...but i have not had to use steam in similar builds.   fwiw, i also typically take a half round router bit to the inside lower - inside facing edge of the sheer clamp to make if a nice half round surface.  to your point, it is not structural, and i find by doing that i save some weight and avoid any sharp edges on the inside of the boat.

h

   Thank uyou, hspira,
 

Clearly, on a hybrid, there are no side panel to deck forms (if you mean a plywood deck).

The strip deck is meant to overlap the edge of the stitch and glue hull which is where my confusion came in. I couldn't see the point of putting an inside bevel on the hull and the bevelling the other way once I'd installed the hull formers to shape the edge of the stripped deck..

As I said earlier, first boat so probably not explaining myself too well...