Hi Mike,

Have you paddled a Current Designs Caribou? It is a similar boat, but
it is slightly deeper in the cockpit. The hatches are recessed, unlike
the VCP on the Hawk, and the lines look cleaner.

http://www.cdkayak.com/kayaks/comps/caribous.asp

Changing the cockpit coaming on a boat is a royal pain. You need to
grind it out, build a new coaming (mold and all), and find a way to
bond it in. In that you are asking how to do it, I'm going to suggest
you avoid it (if you had the skill to do it, you would not need to
ask). You might contact a local boat repair shop to see if they will
do it for you, but expect to pay at least $500 and probably a lot
more. It is not an easy or fun job, and fiberglass is one of those
things that if you screw up, you have to grind it back out and start
over.

Commercially avaliable rims can be obtained from the manufacturers,
but they are designed for specific boats and will require modifying
the shape of your deck to accomidate the shape of the coaming. It
would be easier to tool your own rim to your existing deck shape than
to try and reform the deck to the coamings shape. By building your own
mold, you can also build in the thighbraces at the right location and
angle.

Unless you feel this is the one and only boat for you, it is not worth
the effort. There are better boats out there, such as the Caribou,
that won't require the work.

Eric