I've just about finished stripping the hull on my Cape Ann and I have a question about the outer stems. I hope I can clearly ask this.

When I stipped the bottom, I put in 2 - 5/8 strips of Mahagony down either side of the keel line. On the outside of those 2 strips, I put a 1/8 white pine strip. Those all dovetail into the bow and the stern strips of the hull probably 3' from either end.

Now that I have the hull pretty much stripped, I'm considering on how to put on the stems. I want to continue the pine accents from the bottom to either side of the stems. It seems that the best way to manage this is to cut straight down through the keel strips close to the end of the accent strips and just to the bottom, then cut/chisel forward to the foward edge of the bow. I'll plane the proper curve into bow and then lay in the 1/8 strips from the vertical cut I made on the bottom up the tip of the bow. I'm planning on using a single piece of pine that will be about an inch wide and 1/8 thick. I think I'll have to split the end at the bottom of the boat so that the strip can properly follow the curve there. After thats glued in, then I'll carve a piece of Mahagony into a rough stem shape and glue it in, plane and sand it all into the proper smooth bow/stern shape.

Does that sound right to you folks? I'm nervous about cutting into the boat, but I can't see any other way of doing this and not having it looked hacked.

Thanks for any insight you might have on this.

Leo