I am having a severe case of I should have known better. I am building my third strip kayak, and (until tonight) it was going great. Nice tight joints, even strips - a joy.

I am building an outer island - beautiful design. I am almost done stripping the deck, and I realized that I did not run the strips far enough forward and back to fill in around the cockpit. So I have a few spots where there is a small space between where the strips end, and the cockpit should begin. I should have known better. Arrggh.

I a not a big guy (5' 8" 160 lbs) so I don't want an oversize cockpit. I do not want to scarf strips to fill in the gaps as I have used full length strips this boat, and don't want any scarfs.

The only thing I can think of is to make a recessed cockpit. Is there any problem with this fix? Will it signigicantly change how the boat handles? Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance. Won't sleep well tonight. Butt hurts from kicking myself.