Now that the bedding compound has fully cured, it is time to clean up the forefoot and make it look like the front of a boat and not a pile of scrap wood scarfed together.
The excess bedding compound was easily peeled off by hand, leaving a clean line that is (hopefully) water tight. The next thing to do is to cut the finger joints off the front of the keel. The finger joints were going to support the stem in a plumb position, but this plan was changed when the stem was not properly aligned with the frames. Setting the stem raked was the only option to salvage the stem, otherwise I would have needed to make a new stem that would fit plumb bow.
The stem line was continued onto the keel, where it was then cutoff with a handsaw. This rough cut was simply to tone down the front of the dinghy and is by no means the final shape of the forefoot.
Should the stem and keel junction leak, I have two choices: add lots of caulk and pray or cut and fit in a gripe.
When viewed from the front, the bookmatched grain is very apparent. This grain pattern will offer greater holding power to the planking screws when the rabbet is finally cut in and the garboard fitted. Until then, the forefoot will continue to be an overly bulky and clunky block of oversized wood.
