After removing the deck and hull from the forms and viewing the insides of the hull, I noticed that when I reattached the broken pieces of the stern part of the hull, the strips on one side did not connect to the inner stem. The craft still appears symmetrical, but there is a gaping hole behind and beside the inner stem.
Should I fillet behind here when preparing to glass the inner hull, should I simply remove the inner stem, or should I try to reattach it to both sides?
Thank you!
The main thing is how it looks from the outside…and that it is symetrical and shaped as expected.
the inner stem, as your picture shows, can look pretty sloppy from this perspective. that said, i would focus on removing any remnants of blue tape and then fillet over it with a mayonaise thickness epoxy with wood filler.
a picture shot from outside the boat so that we can look at that together would help me confirm the strategy i am proposing.
is the inner stem necessary? not really. it is just more complicated to build and ensure everything comes out right if you don’t use one as part of your process. i have on occassion, done it when i was trying to save every ounce…but as mentioned, it created some other build challenges that were all addressable, but required some extra work. an example of that is when you want to put toggle holes through the ends to tie a rope to the kayak. typically this hole would go through the inner stem and not open into the hull…so if you don’t have an inner stem and you want to put toggles, you might need to insert a block of material in the anticipated area of the hole to prevent the hole from opening into the hull.
hope that helps
h
Upon further inspection, I think I should use heat to soften the wood and the existing glue and attach both sides to the internal stem. This is more crooked than I want to ignore.
Yep. Based on picture you definitely want to do that before lockin in with epoxy 
I tacked it down today.
Now I’m mentally preparing for the skim coat and first time glassing. I may do another coat of stain first and even out some of the more obvious areas.
From this distance, I cannot tell where I filled in with the stained dust.
kw
Are you done sanding the exterior of the hull? Maybe my eyes are off or the picture is bad but the exterior hull looks like it has not been sanded carefully to the point where the hull is smooth. I personally would not try and glass the exterior with the hull in its current condition.
