: The question should be: "Why didn't I mention that in the
: building guide??" Duhh.

: FWIW, a nice strip of Ash or Oak can be thoroughly soaked and then
: quickly bent into the shape of a coaming, with only the help of
: a heat gun. Actual steam bending is even better.

Good advice Dave. And please, you are introducing the world of SOF to so many people, and I can only imagine that you are also offering a gateway to many first time builders with this simple, fast and cheap method! If the build instructions aren't perfect so what?

Are you getting hit bad by this hurricane right now?

I used nails as a "frame" for bending the strips around. I then discovered Kudzu's site and his method is faaaaar superior. I will def use a hardwood if I do this again. My coaming is fairly symmetrical, but has some flare due to my "nails in plywood" method lol. The layers have less than perfect contact, but I used gorrilla glue so it will cover the gaps. It's still pretty strong though and doesn't look bad honestly after sanding. I'll post a pic when I get home. I can't complain because the whole thing costed me next to nothing and that's the point of SOF to me!!! ;-)