Well I tried out a few little tricks today. I went ahead and tried soaking my strips in the bathtub today. I also drilled holes in the center of each riser strip where the bottom of the lip should be. I took a small piece of the lip which is 1/2" tall not 7/16" like I previously said and used it to drill another hole above each hole I drilled before. They were 1/16" diameter holes and into them I inserted small 1" or so brads and created a pathway (Pachinko style) for the lip strips. There were two areas where I had to make very small "v"'s in the wood to get it to conform. I also had to screw the lip strips to the risers. Even with all of that work it did not come out looking great the way I thought it should. I think my saving grace is going to be that I can sand a lot off of the top since the strips are 1/2" tall and I only want them to be about 5/16" or 3/8" tall. I also plan to tape (on bias) the entire lip. I think by the time it is all said and done the inconsistencies will be hard to see. I do have some small variations in deck to underside of lip. I have at least 3/4" everywhere--some places it jumps up to 7/8" and 1". It is not very noticeable (at least to me).

So all that work and none of it is glued together or epoxied to the riser! So I am hoping that tommorrow afternoon the wood will be dried out (heck it was almost dry today) and I can take one side off at a time and glue the strips together with Titebond II. I'll attach them back to the riser although they will not be epoxied to the riser yet. Once the glue has set well I will remove each side again and epoxy it to the riser. Sounds like a plan, although I am leery of whether the wood will memorize the curves well. Any ideas on how long that might take on an 84 degree day with a load of humidity?

I had a pretty tough time on it today and even contemplated throwing the strips away and making a plywood ring for the lip. I even remember someone talking about using rope. Anything would be better than this soaking, clamping and screwing! But I mustered up my patience and took another stab at it. That's when I was able to get both sides on and contoured pretty decent. It won't win any awards at this point.

Anyone see any wrong turns here? Should I be more worried about my little gaps and misalignments? In case someone needs to know the deck contours similar to a Sea Spirit.

--Tony