Elliott,

Here's how I did my Outer Island -- hopefully it will be of some help to you. Everyone has to do somewhat of a custom job in this area, though.

My last strips came out just slightly higher than the stem form, so they almost met edge-to-edge. I used a knife to cut a 3/8" slot between them and forced my 1/2-width keel strip in the middle. I then stripped the rest of the hull. The first strips on either side of the keel strip had a very long, beveled taper to them. I was worried that, being so thin, when I faired the boat I'd see too much white glue, but it looks great -- all wood. I covered up the intersection that you see here with an outer stem made up of (2) 1/8"-thick strips of walnut on top of (2) 1/8" strips of ash. When shaped, the ash strips tapered about 6" along the keel and is virtually indistinguishable from the white cedar of the rest of the hull.

Dean