turned to this forum in hopes of getting some help here. I've gone kayaking a few times in the past and really love it. I've started to get more into outdoors activities as of late and would really like to get a kayak. I'm a hands on person, I build a lot of things or customize it to my needs. While looking for a kayak i found one for sale that was a skin on frame and had never heard of that before, did some more research and found a good amount of plans online as well as write ups and tutorials. I found Tom Yosts site and really like the idea of building one of these. i guess the first thing i should state is I'm 6'3 225 lbs. So i flipped through his plans to find a kayak that could hold my weight and size. needless to say it was all the really large ones. not that i have anything against a 17' boat, but thats quite a beast to haul around. i started to cross reference dimensions of off the shelf shorter kayaks and noticed that many of them had a beam around 25 to 27 inches. having a slightly shorter kayak in the 12 to 14 range with a higher beam seems more appealing to me (I like to fish and backpack and figured a wider beam would be more stable as well as hold gear better) all that said, 1) am i correct in assuming a wider beam means more surface area thus increasing buoyancy in a shorter craft? 2) has anyone ever built a SOF kayak that has a wider beam? does that affect the skinning process at all? 3) this would be a fun project so i would like to keep it on the cheap, whats the cheapest wood to use for a first try at this? 4) finally, can i take a plan from Tom Yost and change the cross sections to make it wider and maybe taller? I plan to draw up all the cross sections in auto cad then cut them from 1/2" plywood on a CNC machine. I'm sure i will have more questions about this, just want to make sure i get headed in the right direction.

Thanks

Justin