Hey Gordon,
: I built a Chesapeake S&G a couple of years ago. It seems as if I had a couple
: of pieces of scrap wood between the shear strips to hold the hull to the
: correct width, prior to putting in the bulkheads. I think when you put in
: the bulkheads and the two arched ply strips that support the deck
: curvature, there will be no problem with the hull deforming. Did I address
: your question at all, or did I miss the point? Hmmmm.

Did you address my question? Uh. Was I specific enough in my question? Oops! I'm looking at, say, a Cormorant and making the top out of panels and not an arch. So this means no shear clamps (I think those are your shear strips?).

I have the hull panels all ready to go. I could stitch them up now or wait until I'm ready to stich the whole yak in a short period of time. All will not be ready to stich the whole thing for at least several weeks.

So, my question is, if I stitch the hull now and just leave it sitting around, topless (no arched strips, no bulkheads, no shear clamps) for a while (up to a month or more) will it warp so badly as to render stitching the deck on difficult?

From reading the responses to the original poster it doesn't look like anyone is too awfully worried about the stresses put on the panels to get them to line up, so everything should be ok and I can go ahead and make myself a hull so that at least I have a visual focus for the future, or whatever (of course, I'm building this one in the living room and the panels stack nicely up against the wall but the yak would be -right- in the middle and would prevent 2 doors from shutting - but that's another issue!).

Anyway... Thanks for the reply!

cheers!
charles