Time for a coaming, so I took a strip of wood cut off a 2x3, wrapped it in 2 towels, had my son soak it with the hose, then wrapped it up in a tarp. After a day or two, I figured it was as soaked as needed

Last night, I used hot tap water to heat the towel-wrapped strip, dumping several jugsful to get the temp up. I then used water directly out of a boiled kettle for the last soak, donned some gloves and wrapped the strip around a form I made for my earlier sof build. It looks like I got quite lucky, as there was no splitting or cracking....so far anyway. I will let it dry for another night, then glue the feathered strip ends. I think I will stitch and glue a rope coaming on, then varnish before stitching it onto the kayak skin.