What John says is true. Using a sheer clamp on a deck-hull join that is essentially butting edge to edge would more than likely require temporary screws to pull the deck onto the clamp when glueing up. One could I suppose make a feature of it by putting in contrasting plugs where the screws went.

I tend to prefer the look of boats with a hard sheer, so it is not really an issue for me, but if I was building say a GUILLEMOT I would not even attempt a sheer clamp.

The outer island is less extreme than the guillemot, but still has quite a soft sheer line. On the other hand, it is, dare I say it, quite probably easier to tape inside a flatter join.

Have you already cut out the hatches? If so, you are probably better off taping.

Otherwise, IF IT IS VIABLE WITH THIS DESIGN, you could use sheer clamps where you can (where the corners are sharp enough), this will hold everything together nicely while you tape the rest.

There is no point in people being guinea pigs unless they give up the results of their experiments, so whatever you do, I'm sure we would all be interested in hearing about it, especially if it is something a little different. with photos if possible.

Et