The seat looks really cool - it's almost like a tractor seat, and that means the panels curve up as they move to the outside of the seat. This was my first crack at stitching panels together and there was clearly some learning involved, but time, a few broken wires, a few more that had to be taken out and redone, and a bunch of additional wires to pull that outside panel into something resembling a flush fit with its neighbors did the trick. There were still a few gaps that I simply couldn't make go away, but when it's time to glue I'll tape the gaps on the topside of the seat to minimize bleed through and fill everything with thickened epoxy, and once it's been glassed top and bottom it won't matter at all.
The panels in their flat, non seat-like state:
The manual called for a saturation coat on the back side and i did the top and back. The only problem that i can see with that approach was to make it impossible to use a heat gun to try to gently shape that outside panel (that'd be the upside down u-shaped one above) when things got unpleasant.
The seat, post stitch:
I hear that some people leave the seat glassed and don't add foam. I assume such folks hail from Sparta. The seat is leaned back a touch and if you lean forward in paddling that would place all of the paddler's weight on the sit bones. On what amounts to a smooth rock. I ride a bike with a leather saddle and I think that's ridiculous :).
Assuming my epoxying skills improved last night with the deck panels, and i'm hopeful, tonight will be the first stitches into the hull, and in a day or two i'll have something that actually starts to look like a boat. Looking forward.
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