> The more seams the more trubbel. But bending a round deck is absolutly no
> fun.

> Hans

I thought I should note that I just built my second Cheasapeake (I shrunk this one a bit for my wife so it's my own version of the 16). I used a method I picked up from this list on bending the deck down with duck tape - and it worked great. I did the whole deck solo, used a few winch tie down straps to bend the basic shape - then I used strips of duck tape every 6 inches, holding the deck down with one hand and pulling the tape taunt to the hull. Worked beautifully - zero nails, only 2 spots where the tape came loose (since I didn't use enough tape on those spots) with small gaps at the rim - actually smaller gaps than I had to deal with using nails since the tape actually maintains the curve around the whole edge (there is a bit of a gap on the interior aspect which I will fill with later).

I wouldn't let minor aspects such as the curved deck determine the boat choice.

Mark