: I am between jobs so I am working on it today between phone calls (work out
: of the house). I am just now down to what I am calling the hell strips.
: Short, twisty and trimming both ends. REALLY wondering about those last
: ones! I am running out of places to clamp too. Staples are not holding to
: well.

GEt a few of the scrpa oieces of strips which have ended up on your floor, and staple them INSIDE the deck.

KEEP YOUR FINGERS WELL OUT OF THE WAY WHEN YOU STAPLE THEM IN!!! No glue needed. If you want, you can layer a sheet of wax papwer between that scrap and the inside of your hull. This serves as a shelf to keep the real deck strips from falling through. They do something like this when putting in patches of drywall.

Now that you have something under where your strips will go, you'll be able to staple into it, and the waxpaper will keep it from being glued permanently in place.

When you pull the staples that "shelf" is going to just drop out into the boat. Get it later.

: I decided about 3 strips ago to run the rest straight.

Not too many crooks in this forum. We've long ago adopted the "straight and narrow" route.

: LOL Yea, I have been looking at that one. It's about 3 strips away now. I
: enjoy hand fitting things like that. It is the one thing I have patience
: with. I can take my tile and rasp and plane parts to shape. But I am still
: concerend about that one. Not so much fitting it, (not that I expect the
: first one to fit) but holding the darn thing in place!

Caution. If you have not yet shot yourself in the finger tip with a staple you are approaching the area where you most likely will do so. Be REAL careful to keep your fingers out of the way. those small curved pieces give you a different idea abot where you are holding, and ZAP! you get the double pain of: "gee,they warned me about this" and "Ouch. that sucker hurts!" That is followed for years by the sly grimace whenever you hear someone else tell the story of how they stapled themself.

: Would it be cheating to shape/carve a big chunk of wood and then plane it
: down flush??

Not at all. This is a common boatbuilding technique. It is mostly used in the ends of the boat, wher you have a thick piece of wood for a stempiece. The thinner pieces are let into it, or set in a rabbet, but what sticks out is a solid chunk which can be planed or shaped to whated edge profile is desired.

If you cut your own strips you might still have a few pieces which are slightly thicker, maybe even 3/8 or 1/2 inch thick. Or use some strips on edge. They would be 1/4 wide, by 3/4 thick. The cedar is soft and it is easy to plane away the part of the strip which stands above the rest.

I repeat again. this is the dangerous part. Stay safe here.

PGJ