I used Eric's flush fittings on my Arctic Tern. I installed them before glassing the deck, so I have fiberglass cloth over the top of the flattened dowel. I glassed right over the whole fitting, then cut out the back-to-back D-shaped openings with an Xacto knife when the epoxy was still green. If you are careful to not roll the epoxy on heavily over the fitting, little or no epoxy drips down into the fitting recess.

The fittings have held up perfectly fine under normal use; no problems even though the bungees have been yanked on in assisted rescues and paddle-float self-rescues. I haven't lifted the kayak by them, though.

Dean