I am building a Great Auk design from Nick Schade. I'm planning to do a cockpit recess with strips, not plywood. The Auk design has a pretty strong inverted V-shape for the bow of the deck.

When I put a strip perpendicular to the V-shaped deck, the two parts don't match up at all. I've noticed that most of the online images of cockpit recesses show a fairly flat deck profile.

I'm a first-time builder, so I have to ask: Can you do a cockpit recess with a V-shaped deck? If so, what's the best technique? Do you just plane off the parts of the strip the project beyond the V? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I do a different style of recessed cockpit coaming than Nick. However you could recess the front and back if you wished.

I cut the deck on a line parallel to the coaming about 2-1/2" further out and remove a section from the middle to drop this to make the recess. Then I fill the gap with vertical strips slightly angled forward.

This works well on a peaked deck.