Bigfoot and the qajaq

The qajaq's deck is missing the masik and deck beam #5, but otherwise complete, lashings and gunwale joining included (still "terrific job" simetry-wise. Pics in some entry to come soon). That seemed a good time to play around with the positioning and height of those remaining pieces to ensure not so much comfort, but that I'll be able to actually get into the boat and that subsequently remaining inside for a while will not be torture. I was quite worried (by now it should be clear that I am good at finding stuff to worry about...) that such a thing would require substantial alteration of the deck that would ruin the gorgeous lines of the boat.

It turns out that, by the well-known-and-not-terribly-frowned-upon cheats of moving the masik slightly forward and pushing the aft edge of the coaming a bit behind the fore edge of the isserfik I could have pretty much used the original height of the masik. However, in order to accommodate my feet while wearing some mukluks I really enjoy, the foot brace required spacers and the bow end of the foredeck stringers needed to be moved closer to the stem, probably laying upon deck beam #3. I don't really have big feet. Average leaning to smallish, actually, but, obviously, those of the original user were even smaller.

Once it was clear this modification was unavoidable, I also decided to raise the masik slightly. I think the deck actually looks better that way and it should give me an extra bit of much appreciated comfort (and margin for error).

The picture shows the qajaq's original profile below and the one with the modified deck above. I must have compared them about a thousand times, not without some anguish. Perhaps it is just resignation (this has to be done if I actually want to use this boat) and self-deception, but I am slowly accepting that the aesthetic damages might be relatively minor.