I am building a 14' Great Auk for my wife. I have gotten as far as the cockpit cutout and wanted to go with the recessed look. I cut out the cockpit per the plans and plan to strip into the opening then re-cut the opening after glassing before installing the risers.

My question is should I have cut the opening larger than the plans if I plan to strip into the opening? The opening at it's widest point now (before the recess) is 19 and 3/4". It sees like it is going to get really small really fast even with a small recess. My wife is pretty small, but I don't want to have the boat be so custom fit that no one else can use it.

Thanks in advance for any advice. I really love this forum. It has been very helpful to me thus far.

Mike