Thanks Chip, I couldn't have done it without without your help. The orca whale never entered my mind with this deck design, I'm just trying to use up my stash of short strips that are all cut from recycled or left-over scraps of wood. The drawback I found in using short strips is that you have more joints where the different woods come together. The raised strips in this pic have not been glued in yet, but they are the ones that hide most of my mistakes where the cedar met the pine. I found that the iron/wet rag idea worked great for bending these pieces. Another idea that I can't believe I didn't think of sooner was hanging my belt sander with a rubber bungie from the ceiling directly over the boat that I can reach from anywhere and it's always plugged in. You get instant on/off with the trigger switch and with 50 grit you can shape the ends of strips very quickly. Try it, you'll like it.
SMF