Tony,

: 1. Yes, the ply will conform to the shape required if you do a layer at a time, glue up one side with waxed paper between deck/coaming. Do a half at a time, then trim the joint in the center where they meet.
: 2. I used bead and cove just because I had the strips left from the hull/deck. I wanted the coaming to be of the same woods as the deck. You could use square edge strips and bevel the edges slightly as you go.

A glass coaming is not that hard to do, for me, it was a little time consuming. The results were nice, though.

As for the impatience issue, I'd go with the ply stack method. It's a quick build, and looks good too.
Hope that I helped. Thanx for checking out my site too!
Steve