Cockpit construction went pretty smoothly, but it sucked up quite a few hours.  The core was a drywall corner bead, trimmed and scored to get the basic shape.  The corner bead was covered with layers of fiberglass.  I started with 2 layers of 4 oz. and a 6 oz 2" tape.  Later I added a layer of 10 oz. that wrapped from 4" under cockpit to the outside tip of the rim.

 

Overall I'm happy with the cockpit rim.  It looks okay and seems strong enought.  I wish I'd studied more rim shapes and avoided the flat spot in my rim.  I'm not getting a good seal in the mid section of the flat part.

 

 

Dry wall corner bead as foundation for rim.

 

There is a 2" overlap on the port side of the rim.  In retrospect this bulge caused problems.  I should have just butted the ends together.

 

I filled the gap between the EPS and drywall bead with bondo.  This was not a good idea as the solvent in MicroLite light weight body filler eats EPS. Other bondo type products might work.

 

 

Sewing the cloth onto the drywall bead worked pretty good.  It was tedious and sometimes frustrating trying to find holes with the upholstery needle.  This is the first 2" tape, on inside of concave rim section.

 

Later I wished I'd spent more time on getting wrinkles and gaps out.

 

Curved needle was easier than straight.  This is the second 2" tape around the outside tip of the rim.

 

Four oz. cloth was wrapped from outside edge of rim to 3 or 4 inches under deck.  At this point there is 22 oz of cloth at outside edge of rim.

 

 

Ready for epoxy.

 

I wish I had been more diligent in wrapping 4 oz. to underside of deck.  I did take out all the nails before epoxy became too hard.

 

Poly tubing pushed up under rim to help form concave of rim section.  I wetted out the cloth first then pushed the tubing in.  The poly tubing had shock cord strung thru it to hold it place.

 

Holding poly tubing under rim along flat section.  This should have tipped me off that the flat section was a no no.  If the poly tubing had to be held in what would hold the spray skirt in?

 

After the rim cloth was wetted out I fliped the deck and wetted out the underside.  The Gatorade bottle is filled with water, to prevent wind from blowing kayak off picnic table.