: Turn it into a positive. Just tell people you custom built it to
: compensate for having a right arm 1/2" longer than the
: left.

: Jeff, et. al.

I have two questions if you don't mind. I am in the planning stages of building my first kayak and it too will very likely be the Guillemont.

So here goes:

1. What steps do I take to prevent this twisting problem in the first place? Would a plywood box section strongback (as described in Nick's book) be stronger than a 2 x 4 strongback and thus prevent this problem. Can I check the length of my first strips very carefully, remove them and fix things, if they start out a little off? How many rows of strips before this twist starts appear in the partially completed hull?

2. I was planning to install a solid internal wooden stem. From Nick's book this piece gets temporarily attached to the end of the bow and stern forms. How? Any glue that is strong enough to resist the twisting motion experienced by the builders in this thread is going to be very hard to break the bond when you want to pull the hull off of the forms. In addition, how do you do this and not leave a small internal gap up in the ends between the internal solid stem and the strips? I am guessing that the ends of the strips get bonded to the shape of the stem and that eliminates the gap.

Thanks, I am sure that some of the experienced builders on this site, have already solved these common problems and I look forward to any advice.

Greg