I've been trimming the Wales back where they cover the gunports, I've found it quite tricky as the glue has stuck to the port linings. So I don't know what the experts think, but I wish I had used some tape or something to cover the ports then the glue would have stuck to the tape allowing the Wales to be cut without the wood sticking to the port linings.Of course I could have missed a vital tip in the magazines, but I don't think so.

If you look closely at the wale trimmimg photo on page 12 at step 10 of 43 (also seen at step 2 on pg 13, you'll notice that where the wales cover a port the wale is trimmed flush with the lining and not cut back to expose the lining, therefore wales bonding to the port linings is not a problem as it how its meant to be, i.e the wales overlay the lining's and are cut flush with the port aperture rather than being cut flush at where the lining starts.