: :

: John, I don't have an educated opinon to offer regarding the
: chessie's looks.. it was just the ugliest kayak on the beach and
: looked even homlier on the water.

That's enough- there's no point owning (or especially taking the time to build) something that doesn't appeal to you.
The idea of nailing on the deck doesn't appeal to me, though there may be workarounds for that.

: It tracked arrow straight and I
: had a very hard time maneuvering it, I've had no instruction and
: no experience edging or using sweep strokes.

Edging is pretty important if you want to get most sea kayaks to turn promptly, in my limited experience.
I don't know how a baidarka responds to edging; my guess is that some of them will track 'like a train'.
And edging a very 'rounded' hull will often not feel as 'solid' as something with a flatter/flared chine, so it is hard to 'be brave' and set the boat on edge.
You need to find some feedback from owners.

: I will budget money
: for lessons or try to meet some serious paddlers locally and try
: to educate myself.

A day or two with a good teacher can really make a big difference, and a good school will have a selection of boats to put you in.
It's a sizable amount of money, but can save you some expensive mistakes.

: I am looking for a hull
: that is pretty good at handling rough conditions and carrying a
: heavy load, providing reasonable handling and speed.
If you can travel light (backpacking style) and don't have to carry water, you don't need a great deal of extra weight-carrying capacity.
As a 'big guy' you have an advantage there - your gear and food for a few days (or even a week) won't be a huge percentage increase over that for a day trip.

: My
: available time and $ will limit me to one kayak for the next
: three years or so. After that I'm sure I will want more...
;-)
I hate to mention this in a building forum, but
One thing to consider is just buying a used factory boat - there are some good deals around, and often you can get a boat/paddle/sprayskirt/flotation bags/etc in the deal.
Building your own is often not very cheap, though it is fun to paddle something you build.
I've got a bit of a homebuilt kayak fleet for myself here. The possibility of doing some touring/kayak camping came up recently; I didn't have a suitable home-built boat.
I found a like-new Mariner Max (which would probably fit you) completely equipped with skirt/flotation bags/paddlefloat/spare paddle and a very good (Lightning) carbon paddle - the total price was quite a bit less than I would have spent on materials to build a boat and equip it with the same gear. And I can use my shop time to build something else, and paddle in the meantime....

: All I have been able to do is read these last two years, but the
: figures I notice average 80 hours for a S&G hull versus 120 for
: strip. Seems the costs were similarly higher.

Building times are all over the place - depends on builder skill/experience/perfectionism, etc etc.
The pros can work faster, but they have to have much higher standards of finish and detail than we need.
It's when beginner builders demand those very high standards that the times go up, up, up.

But, you are correct :S&G, cutting your own panels is probably a bit faster than strip.

A S&G kit is certainly a fast way to build- I've built a couple now. But with a kit price I'm getting up into the 'buy a used boat' category.

For strip, if you have a cheap source of lumber for strips, and the tools to mill them, and scrap plywood for forms, it can be as cheap as S&G- especially if you are using good plywood.

Strip boats also have a lot more 'wow' factor ('real' wood) from uninformed onlookers, where S&G (plywood) is not so flashy.

I wouldn't let 10-20-30 hours difference in building time be a deciding factor.

If time is important ('time is money' idea), it might be smarter IMO to grab some overtime or extra work hours if possible and just buy a boat and get on the water.

Fun, huh?
;-)