When I did the bulwarks on my Esmeralda. I started at the bow and glued the front of the bow that was mostly a gentle curve. Allowed that to dry and then formed a bit more until I got to the stern. as you can see in the photos it took a lot of clamps and I did each side separetly. I did n’t heat or soak them prior to assembly. In retrospect it may have been easier if I had used a heat gun on the major bend near the bow… but it did come together without breaking. Maybe I just got lucky. 
Donnie - I'm not close to the skillset that Oliver has. But I flipped the boat over and traced it on a 2 X 6 and drilled holes for nails on each side of the line to hold the bulwarks in place after I soaked them. I should mention that I used small wood scraps on some of the nails to prevent denting. Did the same for the rail, limber boards and transom. It worked very well for me.
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The “nails in an old plank” method has worked for me as well. Don’t remember where I got that suggestion (?)
Just an FYI. If you try bending the rails and others you'll want to use a clamp to keep the boards flat. Otherwise they tend to want to flip to the skinny side up. If you do this you'll probably want to use some flat scrap between the clamp and rail so it does not dent.