Hi Pete,

On a design like the Guillemot, shear clamps obviously serve no purpose. On designs with a realatively angular hull to deck joint, they could be used, but as Rob says, there are many reasons not to.

On our designs which have an angular hull to deck joint, we use a specially shaped "shear strip" as shown below. This may seem like a lot of work, but other than running the strip through the shaper four times, it is really easy (especially if you do up a batch for several boats at a time). We generally use a harder wood (usually mahogany) to add some ding resistance. Since the inside is cut away, this really doesn't add any noticeable weight. and the inside can be easily glassed over. This strip is laid up with the hull. The exterior ends up being more rounded over than the drawing shows, due to wood removal while fairing the deck into the hull. Thus it ends up not much more than 1/4" thick as it goes around the corner. This ends up looking good, forms a strong hull to deck fit, and holds up well to use.

Grant