The plans from Laughing Loon do describe building the coaming like this. Multiple veneers are glued over a form that matches the outline of the cockpit opening, and the resulting lamination becomes the vertical part of the coaming. (although, to conserve material, it's not exactly vertical)

Ross

: I don't know why the two main manufacturers (clc & pygmy) don't recess
: their cockpits this way. It is such and aesthetic improvement. I thin one
: of sqeedunk's yaks has a radical recess.

: conjecture here only. (But having bent a fw pcs of 1/8in ply for other stupid
: projects,) would it not be simpler doing the upstand by bending? If the
: dip was say 2in and the coaming ht was 1in, wouldn't it be simple to take
: a 4in (1/2in of slop ea side) wide strip of ply, steam or wet it a bit,
: bend in place, few tabs cutouts for the thigh braces, glue w/ 1/2 sticking
: below the base, setup and use a laminate trimmer or plane to get the
: bottom flush, and run a pencil line over a scrap of 1in card all around
: and trim to that line? Mush a wide blank for the coaming lip on top, and
: run the laminate trimmer around that, and maybe the router set up for a 1
: in+ lip using the i/s as the guide? The idea is to do all of the fine work
: when in place and use the base for a guide and then the i/s of the upstand
: for a guide for the router, laminate trimmer or I would prob just use the
: small plane and afew different sanding blocks.

: -maybe

: -mick