I just did the exact same thing to this confounded guillemot S.G. except I had to use rope! The hull was glassed night before last and when I released the ropes yesterday, the deck sprung but the hull is solid. Now I'll repeat the manuver (as soon as UPS deliveres my 2" tape) for the deck. The Auk we just finished was a lot easier to piece together! Photos someday...

: Hi All, especially newbies like me;

: We have learned that when we finally apply the interior glassing to our hull
: and deck, they get "locked" in the final position present when
: the inside epoxy cures. Since the hull & deck have to align, we take
: care to insure the measurements along the hull & deck coincide as a
: consequence. Most of the time, we use spreaders or tape applied to the
: hull, & then the deck to force the beam to correspond at that point.
: Tonight I said "the heck with that stuff," since I would
: actually have to build the spreaders, etc. Sounded like work.

: Instead, I masked the top edge of my hull and dropped the deck right on the
: newly green hull, and aligned the two with strapping tape. They WILL fit
: together without incident after the epoxy has cured. To make sure the
: wider deck (in my case) did not spread the proper hull width, I stretched
: strapping tape across the hull at the center to lock in the maximum beam
: measurement. Those tape strips became taught as I pulled in the deck to
: match in that area. In other places, the hull was pulled in to match the
: deck "unforgiving" areas. It actually is much simpler than it
: sounds, you simply make the two halves fit together . . .

: The picture below shows the hull inside glass curing while locked into
: position with the deck by the strapping tape - No steeenking spreaders!

: Hope this saves someone as much work as it has saved me,

: Best Regards, Spidey