My High Deck Night Heron is at the 80% complete stage so I haven't actually paddled it yet but if I had my time again I'd use the low deck forms for the front half and the high deck forms for the rear. I have size 8 feet so I only wanted the extra volume for storage but in reality if your only going on overnighters or even week long trips then you don't need the extra volume (IMO).

The night heron has a lot of curvature at the "hump" and it seems to me that the high deck version has even more curvature. I had a fair bit of trouble getting my strips to lay on the forms even after using a heat gun and had to use a lot of nails to get them to sit properly. Even after all that I ended up with a bit of a step between the last two strips although I'm using King Billy Pine instead of WRC which might account for some of that.

By using the low deck front and high deck rear you would reduce the curvature at cockpit making the construction easier and gain a little extra volume which is always handy for fitting in an extra beer or two.

Good luck and hope you get down to Tassie one day.

Cheers
Peter Sebbage
Tasmania