I am building an Expedition Sport.

I have the hull and deck taped together and am having difficulty getting a 2' section near the stern to match. I am not using cove and bead strips, but did use shearspan sticks to maintain the correct width (or so I thought) while both halves were apart.

The deck is at worst 2mm wider each side than the hull. I have tried clamping the deck edge to try to squeeze it in, and also slipping a blade between hull and deck to pry open the hull, but am only succeeding in damaging the edges.

My thoughts are that I am going to have to leave it as it is and fair out the difference when I fibre-glass the outside seam.

Even if I took the 2 halves apart again and used sticks to push out the hull, I would have to remove the sticks to fibre-glass the inside seam, and the hull would then spring in again.

I would be gratefull to hear how others have coped with, or ignored, this issue.

With thanks,

Allan Reade