I particularly like the measuring of the width hint.

Like you, when I make another it will be better and possibly easier!.

I am going to use solid colour epoxy to finish the kayak...... mostly because the ply I have used is very cheap, and very "pale/white almost"; not to mention some of the small, but not pretty, woodwork faults!

: pretty sure the manual gives you the sequence, then again I didn't
: follow it well either. I had dificulty getting the deck panels
: to align well where the four meet near the bow and stern. What
: worked was attaching two verticals on either side of the
: bow/stern to/through the work table with a stick above. From
: that I could tie a wire to pull up the wires where the ends of
: the center panels wanted to fall down and then a strap was used
: to pull the deck down so the deck didn't peak too much. I didn't
: want to go through the multiple attachment/removal with a wet
: deck. I think some of these problems could be addressed if
: another forming bulkhead was used in the hulls development.
: Anyway what worked on the 17W I made worked better than the
: previous Merganser16 1nd 18 I made. So the deck is wired up,
: temporarily wired on the sides. Put unthickened epoxy all along
: the seams, not the deck/hull seam. Now here's an important part.
: Measure the hull width at various points, like 6" and
: 12" back from the bow/stern and at the rear bulkhead and
: wide point of the deck. When cured take it off and glass the
: interior making sure the deck is spread according to the
: measurments you took earlier. You may need a wire to pull it
: together in the middle or spread it near the ends.

: When you get the deck/hull finished seperately and then glued
: together it might still have some overlap, wires can pull it
: together and irreconcilable overlap will not have any practical
: problem, you'll round it off and glass it on both sides anyway.

: I'm sure the method in the manual is better and doesn't involve as
: much fitting with the glassed deck , I just couldn't handle an
: epoxy mess put back on the hull then trying to fiddle with those
: ends that were popping in/out.