just occured to me after posting [of course!]:
- what about making up a glass seat on the form, and then onlaying pcs of veneer in strips or in large swaths in the easy areas to lay it down, then one layer of clear over it - that might be quite striking and yet quite appropriate to your approach.
-next idea is to glass up the whole seat as before and say on the sides and other easy parts, cut large holes out of the seat. Lay flat strips [paralleling stripping on the boat for unity] fitting across each hole, smooth and put a layer of clear on the visible side and whatever on the inside.

that might be the easiest and yet possibly fairly interesting.