: Scott,
: What is the black thing at the top?
: Danny

That is the bow stem. It is fairly beefy, but all I had was some laminated 1" pine. I also didn't really know what shape I wanted, so I just winged it. This whole frame was spray painted black and hopefully that will hold up over time. The picture next to that is the foam glued on to the stern stem that was later shaped with a hand saw and grinder. In gluing the pink builders foam to the stern I noticed how badly rubber cement eats it. I would not recommend using that type of cement with the pink foam, bad combo.

Here's what the frame looked like before I cut the center out of the bow and painted it.
Scott