Hi there
Couple of thoughts with regard to your deck camber and reproducing it. I have done a small sketch of how a late friend of mine used to produce his decks. This was for vessels which had a bulwark running all the way round to the hull.
The first thing he used to do was fit in the deck beam supports, they were normally made from 1/4 x 1/4 soft timber wood, which was glued to the inside of the hull, at the correct height. This height, from the centre of the keel, would be minus the thickness of the deck material. So, for example, if the height of the deck at the centre of the hull was 4 3/8'' he would take off 1/16'' for the deck material and 1/8'' for the deck camber. Giving the height 4 3/16''.
Then, he would mark off and divide the length of the hull into equal spaces, for his deck beams. He would then measure across the hull, at the location of each deck beam. This measurement was then transferred to a thick piece of chipboard 3/4'' thick - some people may know this as fibreboard. This chipboard/fibreboard would be of the same length, if not a little longer than his hull and a little wider than his hull. With the centre line drawn down the centre of the board.
On this centre line it would be divided into sections which corresponded to the deck beams in his model.
Each deck beam would be held in place on the board, using double-sided tape. When he had them all located on he would then proceed in sanding the camber onto the deck beams using a large sanding block (large enough to span three deck beams in one go).
As you can see, you would be able to sand right to the end of the deck beams, therefore sanding them to a find taper, with no restriction of the side bullwarks of the original hull.
Also, you could keep a uniformed camber on all of the beams.
He could also take the measurements from these deck beams and positionings of them to produce the outline for the deck, which he could cut from his chosen plywood and then clamp and bend over the temporary deck beams on the jig. He used to also produce the shear rake as well on the board by adding appropriate packing pieces between the deck beams and the jig board.
It is some food for thought - also if you are unable to do your deck in one or two pieces of plywood - you could also plank the deck as you would plank a hull, using a suitable material., i.e. thin strips of plywood.
Hope this is of some help - I also have attached a scribble to help with the explanation.
Aye
john e
bluebird
