When laying out the transom I made the commitment to powering the boat with a 15" short shaft outboard. My reasoning is that this will keep the center of gravity lower and will allow the poling platform to be at a lower level than a 20" long shaft outboard. Given my physical height (6' 6") there's no need to have the poling platform at any great height. Hopefully this lower position will aid in the stability of the narrow hull while I'm up on the platform. We'll see.

Here's a couple of shots of the transom. It's laminated from 3 sheets of 3/8" okuome for a final thickness of 1-1/8" with the glue lines. The side angles don't appear correct in the photo, but it's just the angle the picture was taken. The final thickness after adding the fiberglass will be pretty substantial.