: Mike,
Mike,

I built a Guillemot this winter and it took me 10 weeks of weekends and some evenings, everything goes a lot more slowly when it's freezing cold.

My first time out confirmed Nicks Shade's stability claim, steady as rock, but it also confirmed various reports about very poor tracking, edging helps but it's hard work over a long distance. So two weeks ago I cut two rectangular holes in my shiny new kayak and fitted a retractable skeg, it's like paddling a different boat, point it where you want to go and paddle, she goes as straight as an arrow, pull up the skeg and you can turn on a sixpence (as we say in England)
The Guillemot is a great kayak, but even better with a skeg.
Good luck.

Nick Harris

: You'll need to keep in mind is that the building of a single striper is not
: something you can necessarily devote 100% of your time to. Much of the
: project will consist of 15 minutes of work followed by 2 hours (or more,
: in the case of epoxy) of waiting for glue to dry before proceeding.
: Patience is mandatory (and that was tough for me). I built two Guillemots
: similtaniously (sp?), starting 2 Jan 08 and launching mid-April 08. I'd
: guess there were maybe 15 days during that time when no work was done
: (travel, etc.) Some days they would receive my full attention, other days
: maybe just a coat of epoxy or varnish. Two boats at once actually worked
: out nicely. I could be dinking w/ one while waiting for glue to dry on the
: other. In no way is this meant to discourage you, just something you ought
: to know going in to it with a deadline in mind.

: Can't speak on behalf of the Night Heron, but thus far we very much enjoying
: our Guillemots. Surprisingly stable considering the tight beam, it was
: quite fun having it out in some fairly heavy chop this past weekend. With
: water continually breaking over the bow, I remained quite dry and was
: never worried about staying upright. Taking us a bit of time to get the
: edging down for tracking straight, but we're getting better results on
: each outing. Easily enough cargo space for a 2 or 3-nighter.

: As ET mentioned, it can and will potentially be a very fruitful experience.

: Enjoy,
: Todd