I'm building a Shearwater Atlantic. What I did was cut the recess at an angle so that the edges of the cutout slanted inward. Then I took a pencil rubbing to make a pattern and get the shape just right for the first few strips, which all had to be cut curved for my recess. Then the edges of the strips were beveled to match the bevel of the edges of the cockpit cutout. (Stanley thumb plane- love it.) The bevel makes it where the strips will lay in with gravity and not want to fall into the kayak. You can even weight them down a little or clamp them. After you get the first ones done the rest will be a lot easier as you get to the wider sections. Mine came out really nice, and needed almost no filling, and little sanding to smooth out the edge. The only mistake I made was in the really tight radius of the curve I probably should have used 1/2" strips which would have saved some sanding. The 3/4" strips left a bit of a "v" that had to be sanded in that one spot to get the curve.