:Am I on my own to stray from
: the plans?

That's the great thing about boat building!! You can do whatever you want. The list of ideas is exhaustive, and would be cost-prohibitive for those guys to design any and every little option we can dream up.

However, you've found the #1 source for advice. If someone here hasn't already done it, explain it, and we can probably figure out how to do it.

Shawn