I e-mailed the guy in the picture in Mike's post and found out that he's only about 20 miles away from me in Grand Haven, Michigan. He lowered the side panels a bit and did a custom bulged deck, similar to the locally-made Betsie Bay Kayaks and Superior Kayaks. This involved installing shear clamps and creating a tortured-plywood deck, which isn't part of the Sea Kayaker design, but is what I would do given the opportunity. He used 4mm okoume for the whole boat, but would recommend using 3mm on the deck. He didn't get as much camber to the deck as he would have liked; thinner wood would allow for more bending. And given the lowering of the sides, he says it can get to be a fairly wet ride.

Dean