I also glassed in a sort of sheer clamp along the transom. The 3/4"x3/4" poplar ripped in the diagonal will provide a little more than an inch of surface to glue the deck down which will be good since I won't be able to tape back there.
My main focus is working on the keel. The handheld electric planner I bought has worked a treat thus far. I just requires the patience to only take off a little at a time. Get too aggressive and you will have many evening alternating between filling and fairing! I also got a 30" longboard that has been great to fine tune the shape. I bought a flexible longboard which will come in handy for fairing the hull, but modified to to make it rigid for fairing the keel. At $50 ea. for the rigid and flexible longboards, the modification was a good solution. I will post a pic when I can.