: Thanks Brian and Bill,

: This is what I have now for frame 4:

:
: http://www.antibozo.net/cgi-bin/eric/imglib/prod/image.pl/eric/pictures/Archive/2009_sea_rider/1-resized/IMG_1916.jpg

: I haven't cut the frame interiors yet so I can play around with the
: shaping a little there. I like the idea of making a masik
: for the upper span. I have some nice clear spruce 1 inch thick that
: I could use for that. Perhaps if I epoxied that to the front
: of the frame and shaped/beveled it? It would be nice to perhaps cut
: the upper span off from the ply form and just use a
: real masik as Bill suggests. I wonder if it would be prone to
: splitting along the grain with that much curvature and the grain
: running across the cockpit? I could glue two pieces of 1 inch
: spruce together to get a two inch thick masik. Bill are you
: using a
: solid masik, or laminating, or something else?

: I could flatten the interior of the upper span a little too as
: Brian suggests. That would reduce the legroom. Perhaps the
: outline I have now might be Ok? I've not tried to sit in a boat
: this tight before so I'm tending to think I'll leave it a little
: more open and pad it out with a little minicel foam if I decide it
: is too loose?

: Shearwater 16 is the closest thing to this that I paddle. And that
: is downright roomy inside by comparison:)

: --
: Ogata, eric

I've seen quite a few traditional SOF's with the masik's cut from straight grain that seem to hold up ok, but the beams are usually at least 1 1/2" thick vs. 1". For me I'd either laminate it or find a board with curved grain (shouldn't be hard to find in pine) so the grain at least somewhat follows the curve. I don't trust grain runout specially on a piece that can be so highly loaded.

Bill H.