Actually, I've put quite a bit of thought into that very idea. I figure that the steps would be:

1. Cut the opening dimension. Sand a heavy radius from opening to deck. This becomes the mold for the underside of the coaming lip.

2. Draw the outside 'gutter' dimension, and cut it out, leaving small uncut segments to hold it in place. Or, cut it out completely, and hot glue it back into the boat.

3. build the minicell mold under the deck, starting at the opening, and tapering to the gutter. Mask everything.

4. Lay up a glass/carbon-if-desired/epoxy gutter and coaming, on the inside of the boat.

5. Remove the minicell mold. Remove the extra deck piece by scoring the little uncut segments left in step 2. Trim the coaming, etc.

6. Taper the deck edge where the gutter starts, and install the gutter/coaming from below.

7. If it does not work, make a "Mick Allen" recess.

I'm not sure how well a "J" shaped section will lay up; I forsee difficulty, especially in the corners. Maybe it would be easier to form a gutter/coaming riser first, then mold the riser/lip second.

Or, maybe this is an excuse to invest in vacuum bagging equipment and materials. I'll bet that the whole thing would lay up in one operation if it were vacuum clamped.

Hmmm......

Regards,
DaveMurphy

: Well, unless you're really committed to making the recess from wood, you
: could cut out the opening, make a recess mold with minicell foam covered
: with packing tape for a release surface and fabricate it out of
: fiberglass, pretty much duplicating what they do on the production boats.
: In fact, you could attach the minicell foam to the underside of the
: cockpit opening and THEN carve it into the mold shape. Heck, I'll have to
: try that. Uh oh, sounds like another boat in the wings.

: I really like the clean looks of the recess on my QCC boats. REALLY like the
: recess with cleats that Mariner uses on their boats.

: Jim