So it's my intention to build a strong "bridge" athwartships, strongly anchored to the deck. There will be no upholstered side panels where the "bridge" meets the deck sides. And, the center-most vertical members of seat back will serve as anchor points for the engine enclosure.

I will remove the original upper and lower upholstered side panels from the boat behind the front seat, and replace them with narrower units, possibly made of solid wood, not pholstered plywood. The original panels are all 6-1/2" deep. The new upper panels will run from front seat back to rear seat back, and will be only 3-1/2" deep. I'll trim the fiberglass behind these panels something like this:

The upper panels forward of the front seat will remain 6-1/2 inches high, but the lower starboard panel on which the throttle/shift lever is located might be narrower and "cleaner" in appearance, or that panel might be combined with the horizontal (6.5 in.) panel. Stay tuned.

12/22/11: Today I trimmed the "interior" portion of the deck that runs from the back of the front seat's back to the back of the back seat's back. I'll probably "cut down" and use the original upholstered panels to "finish" this part of the boat.

12/22/11, Below: I scanned a piece of the deck trim next to a piece of plain white paper. I'll take this piece of fiberglass to the paint store and have them make a small can of "touch-up" enamel to use on the boat's "dings."

12/22/11, Below: A view from the port quarter.

On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 7:17 PM, Grant MacLaren wrote:
Larry, I've made some important decisions about making changes to the Century.

I've trimmed the gunnel rails. They are plywood-backed fiberglass. Look at what (about) six ft. of trimming did to a jigsaw blade. I wore out THREE blades trimming both sides of the boat.

Larry replied:
Wow? How thick is the plywood and how thick is the fiberglas? I wonder if you would cut better with finer tooth. I know the Q2 guys use metal cutting blades for just plain fiberglass. Takes longer but they are always worried about hitting the right line.

The cut part looks good. I am a little mixed on the hull color. The blue looks good and the brown seems a little dark. Hard to tell with the real picture vs the colored one.

On Fri, Dec 23, 2011, later, Grant MacLaren wrote:
Yes, I should have used metal cutting blade, but the saw is new to me, and I did not have metal-cutting blades to fit.

Still kicking around the color ideas. No decision yet -- EXCEPT that if I change the exterior colors, I WILL NOT run the water line up in the front (as it does now.)

12/24/11 -- BTW, this BOSCH saw is SO much better than any hand-held jig saw I've ever owned or used before. And I've owned a few. Many improved features, including blade mounting. But the best is the guide wheel behind the blade, down at the surface of the work . . . makes the blade follow the cut line. I see these new blades are "progressive" -- tooth pitch is finer near the cutting surface. I look forward to using them when we return from our trip.