I shamlessly copied Mike Hanks's idea of adding a rail to the decks to attach the shockcords to. I drew a double pattern in cadd that looks kind of like a level, with oblong holes in the middle. I cut it with a 3/4" roundover pattern bit on the router table, and then ran it thru the tablesaw to get two identical pieces. And, I still have the template so I can duplicate the parts in about 30 seconds more than the setup time! This is useful for anything you intend to make more than one of; possibilities are endless.

: On my first boat, a Chesapeake 17, smoothing out the laminated layers of
: plywood on coaming was FAR more labor-intensive that I expected. On my
: latest project, a North Bay, I carefully laminated the multiple rings and
: then used a router and a "pattern bit" (i.e., has a bearing on
: top of the blade rather than at the bottom). I ran the bearing along the
: uppermost coaming ring using it as the "pattern" and the rings
: below were quickly trimmed into submission (and looked quite nice).

: I still have a bit of hand finishing to do, but it's probably 1/10 of the
: work that I did on my first boat where a surform and elbow grease were my
: primary tools.