: Dave,

: I am not to this point yet, but I have begum to ask myself the
: exact same questions, so thanks for asking them. I look forward
: to the answers that the forum will produce. The height or
: thickness of the external stems seems to be rather vaguely
: defined in Nick's book.

: Greg

Yeah I wasn't 100% sure either when adding the stems to my Guillemot (first build). I planed off a surface that prescribed a nice curve. This actually meant the strips were slightly separated in a couple of places. I probably shouldn't have planed back that far, and if I had added an internal stem, it wouldn't have mattered. But now that it is all glassed, it's super stiff and I am sure will be fine.

I used a heat gun to bend the strips right up to the bow/stern, without gluing them to the deck. This means my deck sits nicely between them and I didn't have to cut through the stem.

http://ianjohnsonz.wordpress.com/category/guillemot-kayak/4-stripping/d-outer-stems/