Can somebody give me their honest
> assessment?I hate to think of spending a fair amount of money and time
> only to wish I had saved more money and bought a professionally made boat
> from one of the top companies. I love the idea, and know how proud I would
> be to build my own kayak - but I also would feel better knowing if it
> would be the performance equal of a top notch professionally made boat.
> Any feelings? Do any of you paddle both?

Toni,Toni,Toni, you appear to be stuck. One thing you might consider is to buy a fine paddle and spend the next year paddling everything in sight and taking classes. Jack said it best addressing the "performance" issue. I'm not sure what kind of pencil e.cummings used or pen Shakespeare had, but they must have performed well.

I just came back from Maine and I swear I was starting to think I was recognizing individual CLC boats from Maryland coming down I-95.

I think folks have a desire to ascribe totemic powers to things, the best way to do this is to make the totem. this line of thought gets a little odd.

I have owned about 4 glass boats,3 plastic,made 7 S&G boats. I think that a molded,compound curved hull and deck shape will untimately yield a better performing design. My experience is that those people more experienced than I that can articulate and perceive these "performance characteristics" have other priorities than "wine-tasting" different kayaks,,,they just paddle.

A Wilderness Systems Alto is a top notched professionally made roto-molded polyethylene kayak, you couldn't go wrong with it,it costs about the same as a kit. You could get a very,very good paddle for $150-$250 and be paddling and dreaming about the perfect boat. all in good fun