The nice thing about building your own boat is that you can add little things everywhere…

there are a lot of parts to the boat that will likely never be seen by anyone ever again once the deck goes on, but sometimes I feel that they need a little extra attention anyway.  I remember the big deal that the Art History teachers made of the fact that the pediment sculptures on the Parthenon were sculpted in the round despite the fact that no one would ever see the backs of them when they were inset into a gable 40 feet over your head.  theoretically to appease the gods, but I suspect more likely that the sculptors just couldn’t leave well enough alone… or were being paid by the hour…

so in this case, on the side of the oak cockpit frame, roughly where your feet would get to if you were completely tucked under the seats sleeping, goes this little flower.

there will probably be more…

side note: two things that this has taught me are a) having a selection of gouges is important, and b) gouges are bloody expensive…