Well, after almost 9 months of working on my kayak in my garage (limited spare time), we finally took her out for the first time on the water. I think I spent a week thinking about the deck design last fall, trading off complexity and the desire to get it done quickly. I ended up with a simple pattern compared to many on this board, but that's ok. It weighs about 62-63 lbs, mainly due to the dense Alaskan yellow cedar, and a bit too much epoxy on the inside (still learning technique). I'm not sure how much heavier this is compared to other Guillemot Doubles.

Thanks to all of the builders on this board for their very useful tips, and to Nick for his great book and bulletin board. My kayak's not perfect, but I'm happy with it and glad to get it out on the water.

While the last coat of varnish was drying the past couple weeks, I made some custom roof rack cradles (also made with cedar strip/glass) that match the kayak hull.

Now to finish outfitting it (deck bungies, etc) and make some nice wood paddles for it so my son can help paddle...

Here's a few links to some other pictures of our first trip, on Lake Samamish near Seattle:

http://pws.prserv.net/usinet.rensb/Resources/KayakCar.JPG
http://pws.prserv.net/usinet.rensb/Resources/KayakBeach.JPG
http://pws.prserv.net/usinet.rensb/Resources/KayakLake2.JPG

-Gary