: Am I naive to
: imagine that strip-building technology would lend itself just as well to
: building a kayak with the deck intact but dented in (a sit-on-top) as it
: would to building one with a big round hole in the top?

Sure thing, go ahead and build one.

Build the basic hull from any desirable design. The deck will be your own design. Keep it rather simple to profile - you'll keep it almost flat, but just a bit higher along the centerline so spray and drips drain off.

For the cockpit area, though, I think you would find it simpler to not work with strips on forms, but with styrene foam. Or, you could model the cockpit from foam and then use that full-size model to make forms for your strips.

Either way, you take your deck design and divide it into three parts: Fore, aft and cockpit. If you want to run strips over the full length of the boat and then cut out the center area (cockpit) you might find this fastest. Otherwise, start at the ends and strip the fore and aft portions up to the forms that define the front and back of the cockpit area. This way you leave the middle area completely absent.

Now get some 1" or 2" (or thicker) styrene foam building insulation panels from the lumberyard or home center near you.

Fit one piece to match the curvature on the bottom of your boat. First, roughly cut it to size. Second, use rubber cement to attach several sheets of sand paper, grit side up, to the inside bottom of the hull. Third, slide the foam piece back and forth until the sandpaper smooths it into a perfect fit for the interior bottom of the hull.

Use small dabs of constuction adhesive, like liquid nails, to attach another layer of ofam to the first, and then keep adding layers until the stack of foam extends above the deck of the boat. You'll hollow this out with a heat gun, sandpaper, or pocket knife, sculpting it to the shape of a seat. You can speed up the process a bit by taking care with how you cut and stack the original sheets of foam. If you install a layer that is hollow in the center, it will not need to be cut out later. Or, you can build up the layers with narrow blocks.

Once you have the cockpit repalced with a foam seat, you can glass right over the foam, sealing it in as flotation. Use epoxy resin.

Or you can use the foam to make forms for a strip-build seating area. Just remove the blocks of foam, after carefuly marking the sheer line from the hull, and restack them once they are out of the boat. Then, cut cleanly through them at 6 inch intervals. After you cut off a section, trace the outline of the cut edge onto plywood. Mark again where the sheer line is. Mark inside the traced line a new line which is 5/16 inch inside. this allows 1/4 inch for the thickness of the strips you'll use, plus 1/16th for the thickness of the glass and resin. If you use thinner strips, adjust this amount accordingly. Cut out the plywood for your forms, and space them at 6 inch intervals on your strongback. You may need to be persuasive to get the stips to hold to some rather tight curves.That may mean staples, brads, nails or screws. Or you can try steam bending, or you can use two layers of 1/8th inch strips -- laminated on top of one another they should bend easily, and still give you the 1/4 inch thickness.

Youll end up with a "bucket seat" which should just need a bit of careful fitting to drop into the hole in your deck. It can be secured there with glass tapeon top, but underneath I think you'll need to have a strip of wood that is epoxy-glued to the underside of the deck, which will serve as a lip for this to sit on. It is the same idea as the inner lip on a hatch.

Speaking of hatches: you may want to put in a few after you attach the fore and aft decks, but before you attach the cockpit. You'll also want some bulkheads, or ribs to support the extra pressure and weight that is going to be put on the deck.

Hope this helps.

PGJ