: Thanks for all the suggestions, will keep all in mind as I tackle this minor
: difficulty.

Hey Bruce,

Something else you may want to consider is: if you use a dark wood for the hull sheer strips AND a dark wood for the deck sheer strips, when you put the two together, if there's a slight gap that needs to be filled, its much less noticable on the dark wood than on a light colored wood. If your filler isn't the exact color as the wood, it's better to have it a little darker than lighter. Now's the time for planning ahead to eliminate headaches later during the joining/filling of the two halves.

In the pic below, the two dark sheer strips(deck and hull)just above the white pine pinstripe and the dark strip below it are walnut. The mix of dark and even darker grain in the walnut made it very easy to fill any gaps without it becoming noticable at all. Hope this helps.

Happy Building.

Charles.