Cockpit Rim

I had originally planned on a molded fiberglass rim, but could not find plywood as flexible as the junk stuff they gave me at the lumber store years ago. I thought of a few options, then decided to fall back on a laminated plywood riser.

This seemed easier than I remember. I did have to waste a lot of plywood, so I used ultra-garbage underlayment.

The rim glued to the risers. The assembly still isn't glued down to the deck.

In place and painted.

Hatches

I decided not to use the hatch templates I've been using "forever", and go for something different-ovals. I couldn't find anything handy to use for a template, so I went online and learned how to mark out an oval using the compass. It was a neat thing, made me feel like a smart child.

It provided this groovy-looking template.
I made the spacers & lips in the usual way. These openings are going to be a little smaller than usual, almost for "show".

It all went fairly smoothly. I used fairing filler and painted.

Deck Work

Sanding the deck went fairly routinely. I decided not to go to extraordinary levels of perfection.

This guy is an onlay, not an inlay. I never seemed to get the "excavation" right when I've done inlays, so I went for this method. I'm hoping that everything will saturate all right.

I still had a few problems where the hull stuck out further than the deck, and I couldn't squeeze it in. I sanded it down right through to the bare wood in a few spots, but these will be covered by the deck overlap.
Glassing the deck went well enough. I stuck to my new "heavier coats" approach with some success, and didn't hit the glass much. As expected, the area of the onlay  needed multiple coats to even it out.

Joining Deck And Hull

I "got over" cringing about drilling holes in the hull, and put several more pull-together sticks in. I also tried pulling a double-sided piece of sandpaper between the halves, to attempt to align the joint.
This time, I put a full coating of thickened epoxy on both halves, instead of spot-gluing.

Quite a barrage of clamps, straps, tape, and shrink wrap holding it in place. The tension sticks made it easy to align the deck and hull. I fervently hope it holds once I remove all this stuff!
The kayak looks bigger than I thought it would. Vaclav's designs do.

Huzzah! I removed all the apparatus holding it together, and nothing moved or distorted!
I did try putting in the strips of 4 oz. tape, and it just wouldn't happen. The strips are hard to make in the first place, and they wouldn't unravel without going "out of control".
I "resorted" to fiberglass tape. I got (ridiculously cheap) 1-1/2" tape, and did the seams without problems. I think it was the 2" stuff that seemed to drink up mass quantities of epoxy.
All this makes me want to try a design that uses sheer clamps.