Nick, thanks for the quick response. Sorry, I probably made the problem sound worse than it really is. There are only about 3 big gaps and these are where I cut the strips at the wrong angle rather than the wrong length. The points meet but the other edge of the strip has a gap. I found it really hard to measure this area correctly. Anyway, I'll try to do some patching with slivers. Can you or anyone else help me with the keel strip idea. From your book, I get the idea that the laminated strip is just for teh very bottom and doesn't wrap up the sides of teh boat at all. This is where i need to cover the flub and can't figure out how to get the piece to wrap like that. I've thought about using some 1/32 veneer which would obviously be just asthetic. Any thoughts on this idea. Thanks again for all your help. Paul