Hello everyone. I was wondering if someone could take a few minutes to answer some questions for me about building my first kayak? I'm looking at buying a kit and taking a shot at building it during the rainy Pacific NW winter and lauching in the spring. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

1) Stitch & Glue vs Strip? I’ve seen both Stitch & Glue and Strip kayaks available in kit forms. What’s the difference? Which would be easier to assemble? Is there a difference in quality or performance in the final product?

2) There are several different styles of kayak (Greenland, etc) and I was wondering what model you would recommend for a novice kayaker? What length? I've been kayaking a couple of times, my most recent trip was to and around the San Juan Islands in Washington so I've been on the open ocean. But, I'm still relatively new to the sport but would like to have a kayak that I'm not going to outgrow in one or two seasons.

3) In looking on the web, I've so far been most impressed with the Pygmy kits. Any thoughts on this? Or any other manufacturers someone would recommend?

4) Anything else???

A couple pieces of information which should help in answering my questions: I have very limited woodworking experience but am interested in giving it a shot. Additionally, I’m a novice kayaker but already know that this is an activity I will be continuing for years to come. I live in the Seattle area and my paddling locales will range from lakes to the San Juan Islands, hopefully more of the latter than the former.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Brion Newell