: 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

It should come as no surprise that I like external strongbacks, this is one reason why, if things start getting out of shape you can easily add external bracing to the stronback from the internal frame to keep things straight. The first couple strips tend to set the overall shape, need to very carefully sight the hull to insure that it's not twisted as strips are added. It's easy to fix the first couple strips, well much easier than having to fix it once the whole hull is built. The alignment of the frames often though is the issue, need to use extreme care before stripping to insure that the frames are perfectly aligned, I know it's somewhat tedious but it'll pay for this work down the road. An extra day or two, or three even is worthwhile making sure it's perfect. I know you want to start stripping, but take the time to get the frame right first.

Bill H.