: I just finished the hull of a Great Auk. After flipping the boat over to
: begin the deck, I think I would prefer a rounded deck. Has anyone
: converted the original forms to rounded forms at this stage of
: construction? Any tips?

: I'm also thinking about building a recessed cockpit. What are pros and cons
: of recessed cockpit? I'm interested in how others have designed and layed
: out the cockpit recess on the Great Auk deck. I'm 6-2, 190 lbs - will I be
: cramped with a recessed cockpit?

I built my great auk single with a peaked deck and partly recessed cockpit like the book but the cockpit is much smaller to fit the same spray deck as my white water boat.
On the triple kayak which I am currently building (a stretched great auk double) I rounded the peak on the foredeck after I assembled the forms. I did this by planing a curve on the first and last forms I wanted to curve using a block plane. I marked out the curve by bending a steel rule to the shape I wanted (extra hand needed here). I then marked out three points on each of the other forms in between by drawing straight lines between the points where the curves faired out onto the straight portions on the two forms at each end and then dividing the amount taken off at the centre of each form equally on all the in between forms.
I used the steel rule method to draw a curve on each intermediate form. These curves pass through the two end points of the curve and the midpoint.
My main motivation was to make it easier to lay a deck pattern which crossed back and forward across the centre line of the boat. I didn't need to lower the centre portion of the deck very much to do this (only about 40 mm maximum) and the finished result is very pleasing.