Thanks for the help, Nick. Now you've raised other questions. I had considered recessing the cockpit solely to avoid having a peaked coaming. But maybe there's a better, more direct way of doing that (like raising the sides of the coaming?). Lowering the cockpit would introduce all kinds of design questions that I would need answers to. Would a recessed cockpit make entry more difficult? Would it give a paddler a less secure feeling (I'm 5'10" and 180 lbs.) And then there's the aesthetic concerns: how that will change the lines of the kayak in profile, where to begin recessing to keep fluid lines. I'm beginning to think this is more than I want to handle.

> You can make a recessed cockpit on a stitch and glue similarly to how I do
> the recess on a stripper. Cut out an over-size hole, fill it in with
> plywood and then cut your cockpit in the new piece.

> The picture included here shows the plywood filling the oversized hole. I
> installed this after I attached the deck to the hull. The small hole is so
> I could reach inside during installation. You can do the installation
> before attaching the deck, and you could cut the desired size cockpit hole
> before installation. I felt that for my purposes the way I did it would be
> easier.