I studied all of Nick’s videos, and with much trepidation, cut the hole for the cockpit surround using the plan template. I cut the hole significantly smaller so as to sneak up on it, fitting from the front and working aft. The result was not my best work. The front and sides fit pretty well, but I managed to over-trim at the rear, especially the aft left corner, where I have a remarkably consistent 1/8 inch gap. See the image:
My primary concern is maintaining structural integrity in an area that will get a lot of stress when entering and exiting. I have some ideas, but I’m looking for input.
The first idea is to glue in the surround as best as possible and glass the deck, letting the fiberglass bridge the gap. Then I’d flip the deck over and fill the gap with the underside fillet, with the topside fiberglass holding it in. Would a wood fiber/epoxy mix provide sufficient structural support?
An alternative is to fill the gap before glassing the deck. I could back the gap up with something (tape?) from the bottom, and goop in wood fiber/epoxy filler from the top. Smooth it best I can before it sets, and smooth it better when it sets (dremel tool grinding stone, good dust collection and heavy duty respirator).
Nick glues the surround in with CA, but then again, his gaps are minuscule compared to what I have to work with. Most of my gaps aren’t the canyon in the picture, but enough that I’m tempted to use thickened epoxy on the bottom to glue the surround to the deck. That would hold it more securely against the jostling of glassing the decks and installing the coaming.
Thoughts?
i have made similar miscuts…it’s frustrating.
the good news is, don’t worry about strength.
between the fillet that will be on the back-side of this plus glassing both sides and with extra glass that always goes on the underside rear of the coaming and back 6 to 10 inches, strength is not going to be a problem. so the real focus is how much time do you want to spend to get what kind of cosmetic result.
my first inclination, though it is tedious, is to build it back up with strips that match the color of the strips where the gap is. i have done this in a similar situation. you just butt glue the strip to the existing strip and extend it out into the gap and recut it. this is assuming that you are basically going for a clear/varnished finish.
if you look at the first picture here, from the bottom, you can see that i overcut the deck and then refilled in strips to bring it back to the right size. the next picture shows the additional glass that always goes aft of the cockpit. and the final picture is the top side, and you can barely see the line where we refilled in the strips. most people never see it…but as the builder you tend to remember these things..
if i didn’t want to do that, i would put tape along the back and fill it with woodflour/cabosil (the white dusty material) paste trying my best to match the mahogony sill color.. once i do that, then sand clean and glass normally.
as mentioned, at the end, most people will not notice and you appear to be on your way to a very nice build.
the boat with the bad cut, not withstanding the diversion, did win best in show the year i built it and displayed it at the big little boat fesitival…
so chin up…you are doing great. you get a little more time to work on your boat 
