: I've stripped the hull from the sheer line past the chines to where I'm ready
: to start on the "football". The problem: the last two strips
: (one on the port side, one on the starboard) do not meet at the same point
: on the internal stem at the bow (they meet just fine at the stern). To be
: clear, only one of these strips is in place right now and I'm trying to
: fit the other one. I think the reason they don't meet is that on the side
: of the unfitted strip the previous strips have pulled away from forms 2,
: 3, 4 somewhere between 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch (not more than 1/4 inch).

: The strips *will* meet if I use an extra cheater strip on the side I haven't
: glued yet. I'd prefer not to do that as it will be pretty asymmetric (at
: least visually, I have no idea what the effect will be on paddling). I'm
: wondering what could be done at this point to make the recalcitrant strips
: hug their forms more closely (eg, run several screws through the strips
: and into each form, with scrap wood to keep the heads from digging into
: the strips?). Other ideas?

: Any advice will be appreciated.

: Thanks.
: Wes

Hey wes,

I've just finished stripping the hull on my Guillemot L and it sounds like you may be experiencing the same problems I had with the "L" and with my wifes Guillemot. I did not use cheater strips on either boat, tho' it probably would have made stripping the bow and stern areas easier to strip where you have the compound twist in the strips.(up-sweep plus a twist) I did not correct the problem on the Guillemot in that I allowed the strips to pull away from the forms slightly. At that point in my boat building experience, I did not know about the heat gun and how easy it makes bending wood. IN MY OPINION, and from what others have said about the "loose" tracking of the Guillemot, I believe this is one of the things that some (not all) of us are doing wrong - not realizing what effect this is going to have on the performance of the boat.

When I went out to work on the "L" this past Wednesday morning, I noticed that the strips had pulled away from the forms at the bow AND stern in the same areas that you mentioned. My heart fell to the groung. I went back inside the house and thought about it for a couple of hours. This is what I did to correct the problem.

I wet the strips where they were pulled away from the forms plus 1' past those particular forms in both directions. I did this on both sides of the keel because both sides had pulled away. Then I proceeded to work the joints between the strips till I could detect slight movement in all the joints. I then used two ratchet straps and two 2x4 blocks of wood and clamped the 2x4's edgewise to each side of the affected area - pulling the strips tight against the forms. Then I heated the entire area (hot) and left it clamped for two days. I did this on the bow and stern. When I took the clamps off, I could not believe the difference in the shape of the area as compared to the shape of the Guillemot.(this is the shape that the Guillemot SHOULD have)

If you have a problem with the strips NOT being tight against the forms, now is the time to correct it! The thing that I like about strip building is the fact that it is very forgiving. Anything that you do can be undone or changed or (in my case) corrected. And, I don't want to give anyones design a bad review when the problem is something that I created by not doing my part right!

I've taken some pics of my progress (and corrections) but I'll have to get some film developed before I can post them on my site.

Anyway, if this info doesn't help you, maybe it will help someone else. The whole point is . . if we don't build it right, it won't perform the way that it was designed to perform! Nick has some beautiful designs and I know you will be very proud of your selection. And, for the record, the Guillemot tracks just fine. I offered to add a little to the keel at the stern to make it track even better, but my wife won't hear of it!

Happy Building.

Charles