Thanks for posting the pic! That probably helps quite a few people who couldn't access it. Now that it is rotated by 90, I can orient my head better and I realize that it is the port side. This is looking at the bow. Not that it makes much difference on the fix.

Awesome community, and glad I posted. Feels a bit like asking 5 people for an opinion and getting 10 different ideas, but what is clear is most think it is (a) very fixable one way or another, and (b) it's worth trying to smooth out by some means.

Shaving it down certainly seems the easiest and fastest. Yes, they are 1/4" strips. I didn't measure the depth, but I'd guess it was in the 1/16-1/8" range (I'm out of town right now and away from my boat). To fair it out would probably require taking a bit less than that off of the high spots. Good to hear that is acceptable, as I agree that quick work with a plane is by far the easiest approach.