After a few years and a lot of rough miles on my boats all or now being converted over to external stems. I finish my boats out cloth inside and out and the apply the external stem and glass them. If I wear through that glass I still have a lot of wood left to wear before I get to the glass on the boat ,so I never have water intrusion.
Here are a few pics of the ones I put on the T-V after a couple years of use.
Something I forget to include.
after gluing up the stems I thin some epoxy and give them a couple coats ,let it soak into the wood. I am just using pine for stems ,it is a lot tougher than the cedar.
Ron