: Reg Lake described to me an ingenious way to build skirts.

: Cut an oval of neoprene to fit your cockpit. Build a cylinder
: "tower" the size to fit your torso..

: Cut a big "X" in the deck, the diameter of the tower. Turn each
: "quarter pie-shaped" piece up. Cut 4 zigzags into the bottom of
: the tower. Glue each tower zigzag into the middle of one of the pie-shaped
: pieces from the deck. There will be a zigzag seam running around the
: tower, and no seam at the deck to leak into your lap!

: Shawn

Actually I only made one (for my large cockpit Mike Johnson surf shoe) with the pie slices. So I would recommend just going with a straight or conical tunnel instead. The zigzag seam of the pie slices is difficult to glue and though there is no waste on the deck material, you will end up eliminating material on the tunnel to match it, so there is no gain. A one inch overlap on the tunnel to deck seam with the edges sealed and pushed down flush should last the life of the neoprene.

I don't use the conical jig at all. Just cut and insert a board that is the exact dimension of the hole perimeter. For example a 10" hole multiplied by pi equals 31.4" so a 2x4(finished thickness 1.5") that is 14.2"L will add up to 31.4".

For the shock cord form I use a 2X8 board that is 39.5" long. The perimeter measurement adds up to 82" which is the exact dimension of my coaming riser. This form will allows me to glue the shock cord in in the stretched position so that when you release it, it will have a nice uniform appearance to it.

Gary, you mentioned having trouble with the fold over the shock cord. This system should work a lot easier. The pattern is the outer edge of the coaming plus three inches and then cut and glue three darts on the small radius to get rid of excess material. Ten minutes after the second coat of glue is applied the shock cord can be placed in the middle of the three inch glue strip and closed up. This part is tricky because you can accumulate error. I usually close it up at 3,6,9,and 12 oclock first to minimize twist.

I prefer the nylon two sided neoprene but if folks are using the one sided then the three inch glue area needs to be scuffed up with sandpaper to get a good bond.

Hope this is helpful. I am off to Deception Pass for the morning so I will check in later if there are any questions. Kinda fun stuff making your own gear, isn't it?

Reg