I'll be putting a pinstrip around the cutout area to set it off from the center. since I already had the pattern that I used to trace out the cut lines, I used it as a templat to build a bending jig. I have a ash-walnut-ash sandwich that I am gluing together. I figured pre gluing the strips together would be faster than doing each one individually. Here are some pics of the bending jig.

I need to do this twice, then I'll rip the strips to width on my band saw. That will give four pieces which I will scarf together on the boat.

I'll save the form and continue it around to make the full cockpit shape which I will use to glue up the combing lip. I'll probably do an ash-walnut lamination for the combing as well.

I wouldn't try this method with more complex shapes. The tightest pinstrip curve happens to be on an area where the strips are all in a plane. If there was any deck curvature, this method would be almost impossible since the three glued up strips are so much stiffer than individual strips. There are a couple of transition points along the side which require beveling, which I think is going to be easier with the glued up pinstripe.

I've started stripping the deck. I'm using the remaining dark strips to fill in each end and then I'm cutting a curve to fill in the center. To make the curve, I used the template of the cockpit cut out as a pattern. To cut out the curve, I used my Japanese pull saw and bent the blade around the curve...it worked great and didn't ruin the saw.

















Here is the final cut at the bow. The profile view shows the curve I was after. The strips on the deck should end up matching the darkest strips in the racing stripe (there is another dark strip under the blue tape). The Great Auk design has a pretty prominent fore deck and I hope that this pattern will de-emphasize it...we'll see.

Here are a couple of shots of the hull with two fill coats of epoxy. I was in the process of flipping her over to start stripping the deck. These pictures were taken at the end of October.