Hi Ed, most people wouldn't even try to build their own boat; it's not surprising when we (me included) encouter problems... if it were a cakewalk then there'd be a stripper in every garage Most strippers will have a certain number of gaps. My suggestion is to rip a new group of strips for the deck, fair/sand the hull as planned, do a seal coat and fill any gaps after the seal coat with (pine) wood-flour thickened epoxy. You will minimize cleanup by filling after the seal coat. It will probably look fine; otherwise just paint the hull.

Chip
www.ChipSandresky.com/lorettaandchip.html