I have an idea for footbraces that are easily and infinitely adjustable and wanted to do a reality check before I get too far down this path.

Since we are building Yost's fuselage method we have plywood stations that will remain in the boat. The instructions call for 1" of plywood between the inside edge of the chines and the openings in the center. Station 3 is at the front of the coaming and station 2 is just beyond the feet. I was thinking of building out the top corner area between the gunwale and top chine of stations 2 and 3 so that I can cut a 3/4" square hole through the stations to run a piece of (slightly less than) 3/4" square stock through them to attach the foot braces onto (I would probably have to build up the area of the square stock around the foot brace). I was thinking of putting a pulley in roughly the same position on stations 1 and 4 and attaching cord to the square stock and using something like a cam lock to lock the cord in position.

Has anyone tried/seen something like this? I know that there will be issues to be resolved (like keeping it from poking through the skin near stations 1 and 4...) but I'm sure I can solve them. What I want to know is will I compromise the integrity of my stations if I attempt this? What if I fiberglassed the wood around the hole? Would it be better to use rectangular stock (1/2" x 1"?) of a tougher wood for the slider bar?

In this area this boat will be strictly a recreational kayak and nobody in their right mind wants to roll a kayak in the green-brown water of the local creeks so there shouldn't be huge stresses on the foot braces themselves.

Unfortunately I don't have my blog for this project set up so I can't post a picture of the area in question on one of the stations (anybody know a good, free, blog site? this would be my first blog).