> Has anyone used an electric hand held plane to smooth the outside of the
> deck an hull ? Also what are some other options for smoothing the inside
> of the boat if one does not want to take the time to completely regrind a
> block plane to accomodate the curved surface ?? TIA Peter

I've been very happy with a belt sander for the outside. On the inside I used a 6 inch sander/buffer which used a flexible rubber backing piece on which 6 inch disks of sandpaper were glued. Optionally, the sandpaper could be held on with a bolt and washer arangement that gripped the center of the sandpaper. I can't honestly say I was real happy with it on sharply curved areas, but it was pretty good on gently curved areas. What is the diffence between sharply and gently curved areas? Simple. When you hit an area with too sharp of a curve the glued on sandpaper flies off-center causing the sander to oscillate for a few seconds before that sanding disk flies off like a Martian spaceship. Clamped on paper disk simply shred at that point.

I learned that a light touch and an ample budget for sandpaper disks are essential when using this. It can work, but there has gotta be something better. I used a paint scraper to remove glue runs and blobs. On the outside the regular blade was fine. I reground it for use on the inside, and never got quite what I wanted. The curvature of the hull rarely matched the curvature of the blade, so I got scratches.

A surform tool with a curved blade was a bigger help, but could not do the job alone. I don't have a detail sander, but suspect one would speed up some of the work I did by hand. Hope this helps Paul Jacobson