: Well... I've been working on my first build, a Njord, and
: everything was going well. I had the hull stripped and glassed
: on the outside, had flipped the boat and decided to remove the
: forms and glass the inside before doing the deck. Several hours
: of scraping later (the small Surform worked the best) I was
: close to having a smooth hull. Oh... I've been working outside,
: by the way, on the back uncovered porch, keeping the boat tarped
: when not working on it. I left the boat uncovered, though, while
: I ran to the store and, lo and behold, we had a freak severe
: thunderstorm that left over an inch of water in the unfinished
: hull.

: Now the hull has warped all out of shape, not only splaying out at
: the sides but bulging on the bottom, creating a concave shape on
: either side of the keel. I tried reinserting the forms and using
: duct tape to strap together but that's not strong enough. I'm
: sure when it dries it will retain the warped shape. I think the
: only way to save the hull might be to remount the forms to the
: external strongback, put the hull back on the forms and use
: several wood screws at each station to pull the hull back into
: shape, maybe rewetting it, if necessary. I made the hull black,
: with graphite, and plan to paint the deck so I should be able to
: fill the screw holes with thickened epoxy and paint over.

: Does this seem feasible, or are there other solutions? I hate to
: start over...

Thanks for all of the help and suggestions. It didn't look like the cupping in the bottom of the hull would go away on its own so I got some ratchet straps and cinched down the forms. I'll let it sit for a couple of days and see if it will hold the shape long enough to finish sanding and fiberglass. I suppose I could re-strap the forms once the glass has set up, if necessary, until it cures.

Oh yeah... I think part of the reason for the cupping was the lighter colored cedar strips that were on either side of the keel (I was running out of matching wood at that point). They were quite a bit less dense and would presumably swell more when wet.