The deck on my Laughing Loon Georgian Bay seemed a little too flexy around the cockpit so I did the flat-deck inset and it really made it much stronger (and I think it looks cool too).

Somewhere in these discussions I read a great tip: Cut out the hole for the cockpit; lay strips over top of the whole (let them hang over the edges an inch or two) gluing them to each other but NOT to the cockpit. For me, I used 3 inch strips on each edge with one all the way across every 5th strip. After the glue drys cut out the center roughly with extra to trim later. Reach under and trace the cockpit shape on the strips underside. Take the strips off and cut near the line. Trim to fit and then glue the whole thing in at once.

This way you don't have to trim each strip as you put it in.

Pete

> It's almost decision time. Construction of the Guillemot is going
> well and it's about time to decide whether I want to do a "flat
> deck" around the cockpit as suggested in the instructions, or
> whether I'd rather continue the main deck lines right up to the cockpit
> coaming. My instinct is to NOT do the flat deck around the cockpit
> and add internal knee braces if needed.

> I hereby solicit comments and suggestions...thanks.