Fixing the Sheer Strip for the Deck

The sheer runs along the full length of the kayak at the widest part of the kayak. It is where the hull meets the deck and where the two halves of the kayak are joined together after the hull and deck are completed.

On the deck, I'm using a half inch tiger maple for the sheer strip. The strip is off a 10 foot board, so I had to attach two strips end to end. I attempted to do this with a butt joint, i.e. two flat ends glued together. The joint didn't hold and I ended up with a gap:

My choices were either to pull the sheer strip off the boat or to repair it in place. Repair it in place it was. I decided to cut out about a foot long portion of the sheer. I cut it at an angle to do a scarf joint. To insure that the scarf on the patch strip would match that on the patch strip, I taped them together before cutting. I also used a thin sheet of steel with a thin piece of wood taped to make sure I didn't saw through to the hull. This shows the set-up after I made the cut through the sheer strip and the patch strip:

I cut the patch strip a little longer than it needed to be and then sanded the end to shorten it. I was careful to make sure the scarf angle stayed the same. Here it is just before gluing. Note the tape on the hull to make sure the glue from the patch didn't glue the deck sheer strip to the hull: