Gaps have appeared between the deck and shear clamps on my Chesapeake 16. Should I fill with epoxy/cell-o-fill or epoxy/wood flour? Or go for the rub rail option? I will be painting the hull up over the deck about an inch or so.
I also noticed a slight depression on the fore deck. I did use a clamp across the deck to “pop” the fore deck up but this depression appears closer to the bow just before it flattens out. Is this normal? Will it, or can it, be filled with fiberglass and resin? Or should I just live with it. It may just be the transition from the rounded deck to the flatter bow.
It normal to get gaps between the deck and hull on the Chesapeake design. The easiest way to fix that is to fill with thickened epoxy prior to trimming the deck edge per the last step on page 121 of the manual.
If you still have some gaps after trimming the deck and sanding the hull to deck radius, you can fill them easily enough with a putty knife. If painting the area, use epoxy mixed with microballoons because it is lighter and easier to sand. If varnishing the area, use epoxy/wood flour with a little cab-o-sill to lighten the color. Picture is a close up of the seam on my Chesapeake Sport Tandem build.
Regarding the low area in the deck, if you can’t raise it from below, I’d leave it alone if you plan to varnish the deck. Adding extra glass/epoxy thickness will be visible and probably highlight the defect. If you are painting the deck, fill the depression with epoxy/microballoon then sand smooth prior to paint.
Mark,
I will be painting the front of the fore deck so I can use the micro balloons for both the gaps and the slight depression. It is very slight but I’d rather not have water collect there. Thanks.
Rob
ditto to the final approach you came up with - micro balloons for both 
