: Thanks that sounds an ideal solution. By wet do you mean soak? Or just a
: damp? I haven't played with steaming or heating strips before so a bit of
: a novice.

Hey Ian, I wet the area as much as I needed to soften the glue joints and the wood a little. It was fairly soaked when I pulled it down with the straps. After I got it pulled into place I heated it again with the heat gun, then covered the end of the boat with plastic, placed a little ceramic heater inside the plastic and let it heat/dry the area. Then I let it cool before removed the straps. It worked out great. Here's a pic of the area after everything was removed. The "L" tracks just fine.

I think what you see on your Guilly is the same thing that happens to a lot of people (in varying degrees((many first time builders)) which resulted in several posts about tracking problems with the Guillemot. I'm sure removing that "fin-like" area of the stern (strips pulling away from forms)has its fair share of effect on the tracking. You can also pull it down into place AND add a little extra to the external stem if you like - its your kayak. I'd much rather have the tracking a little "snug" than to have my wife darting around like a minnow every time we go paddling. Just remember, it doesn't take much addition to the stem to do the job. Focus on the section below the waterline, then blend the ends back into the hull.

You may have to copy the pic to your cpu then blow it up a bit to see the concave area where the correction was made. FWIW: the Guillemot with the beefed-up stem now tracks just slightly better than my "L" which made my wife very happy.

Happy Building.

Charles.