I inlayed my compass rose. Tom ensure a relatively even depth that wouldn't interfere with the fairness of the hull I first cut around the inlay with an exacto knife then marked off strips about a quarter inch wide spaced every inch perpendicular to the length of the boat. I cut on ech side of these strips with the exacto knife and removed the material in between them, this gave me an accurate measurement of the depth all across the inlay. after everything in between was evenly removed, I removed the untouched strips and cleaned everything up.

The biggest problem I had was esuring everything would lie flat. The inlay was at the peak of the deck, so the ridge in the middle wanted to push part of the inlay up, while others still layed flat. I turned out well, except that one part was a little high and when I sanded it down I went a little too far. I painted it with some acrylics very carefully and it looks 99% good. I'm a big proponent of the 6 foot rule.

The picture is the inlay with a sealer coat of epoxy on it. You can't see the part where I sanded through.