: So, I'm 9 strips in on the bottom of my boat, and already I'm thinking about
: the next stages.

: After reading an article on making your own neoprene spray skirt, and still
: trying to figure out how my complex curved cockpit area will work with a
: spray skirt and drainage (I don't want to add a vertical coaming if I can
: help it) it occurred to me that I would already have a piece of deck the
: right shape to fit the hole perfectly.

: The reason for the traditional big cockpit cutout is for ease of entry and
: exit. What if we used a much smaller neoprene skirt (just big enough to
: get your hips through), and mounted ourselves in the middle of a 'hatch'
: instead? You'd still be able to pull the hatch to escape if you ended up
: upside down and unable to roll back up, but you could do away with the big
: unsightly coaming, and all that wet neoprene.

: The question is has anyone made/used a hard skirt?

Heck of alot easier and likely safer, to just make a greenland style cockpit (nowdays called and ocean cockpit). The skirt on my greenlander is only maybe 2" wider than me with it's 17" round cockpit.

Bill H.