what i did was.....to round out the center of the ship's hull a bit, below the waterline, but kept the keel straight...(no straight lines in the ocean :))......rounded the bow deck , cause i figured it would be a popular place to hang out and it felt right......added the boar's head ram (super sculpey) which may be a bit oversized.....added a sexy tail.....raised the top oarsmen and the added gunwales a couple of millimeters, and added outriggers for the top oarsmen so the oars would all be the same length......the oars on the bottom row, would probably be shorter closer to the bow and stern, but i left them the same size cause i'm lazy:)......finished the hull with satin urethane...i like it, because if i drop a speck of ca glue on it , it can usually be scrapped off as ca doesn't seem to stick well to urethane.....oh...i don't like water based urethane....i only use oil based, as long as i'll be able to get it:)....(aside from the water based urethane lifting up the grain of the wood, it also really shows up any excess ca glue stains, where the oil based tends to blend in with them more)