I was cruising right along, excited about getting closer to the stripping stage, when I hit a pothole.

My forms are all set up level and plumb (external strongback), centerline is straight, "waterline" marks appear lined up, sheer clamps look good when dryfitted to the notches in the forms, so I attach them.

Then I sight down each sheer clamp. The first one looks great -- about as fair as I can make it (I guess -- this is my first boat -- how would I know any different?). On the other side, though, the sheer clamp appears fair in the horizontal plane, but has a wobble in the vertical plane. It rises smoothly from the stern, to around the cockpit area, then just as it begins to fall toward the bow, it takes another brief rise before finally falling smoothly toward the bow. The "wow" is no longer than 2 or 3 feet.

I showed this to my wife, who at first couldn't see it, and thought I was crazy. I took this as an encouraging sign - maybe I'm just being too picky. But after moving around a bit, she was able to see it, too. I laid my spirit level across the sheer clamps at each station, expecting it to confirm what my eyes were telling me, but THEY ARE LEVEL AT EVERY STATION!!!!

So here's my dilemma. Do I attempt to fix this now, or do I just get on with the stripping? I know that the clamp will be invisible, and the top edge of it will be planed down to match the deck profile, before stripping the deck, so I could simply go ahead, and take extra care with the first hull strip to make sure it takes a fair path, but I was hoping to be able to use the attached sheer clamp as a guide for attaching that first strip. Also, I wonder whether this indicates a fairness issue on that side of the deck profile, which I won't be able to see until I begin stripping the deck.

Some of the best advice I've seen in this BBB is "don't get hung up on the small stuff". Unfortunately, I'm not sure yet how to differentiate the small stuff from the big stuff.

Any suggestions?
Ken