good morn Brion,

> 1) Stitch & Glue vs Strip?

unarguably strip boats are beautiful ways to get linear pieces of wood into compound curves, s&g are sections of wood that are a little more limited in the curves possible, although pygmy does a good job with it's 8panel boats, quality is more a function of the builders skill. Most first time boats "perform" the same as boats made by long time builders,they may weigh a little more or look rougher. Quality and performance characteristics tend to mesh with personal preferences of the paddler. In other word there isn't a 0-60 time for kayaks. It would be like performance characteristics for $90 running shoes. Dimensional data or stability curves still won't tell you as much as your own paddling experience or two cent opinions from paddlers you know. Four panel boat might take 100hrs to make,8panel a little more, strip boat?,haven't made one but estimating >200hrs other builders could answer that one.

> 2) There are several different styles of kayak (Greenland, etc) and I was
> wondering what model you would recommend for a novice kayaker? second question really can't be answered well enough to be useful. Although any boat made by Mike Hanks has to be good because of his sense of humor, what boats have you paddled that you liked? fitting a kayak out for comfort will make a big difference in how you perform with a boat. There's no way around the development of skill and preferences, you may like a long big straight tracking boat then want a maneverable shorter kayak then want a long maneuverable boat with redwood strip accents and vermillion perimeter line. Just be realistic in your intended use, if you are paddling with no more than 20 lbs of stuff most of the time then a "sea kayak" built for a 175lb person and 100lbs of stuff is more boat than needed when day paddling when the wind and waves pick up. A "fast" boat is only fast when paddling hard with heart pumping in the upper range,in other words is a bike faster because it has 20mm tires at 140 psi or 28mm tires at 90psi,yes but at what consequence?

> 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?

pygmy boats are well designed, built a couple and appreciate the the designers intent. The coamings are large,which is a characteristic most beginning paddlers like. Personally i like more of a keyhole shape for thigh braces. They have a gap in boat choices for lower volume kayaks for the 150lb paddler range, although the Arctic Tern 14 might fill that need. chesapeak light craft has a range of kayaks also built a few of theirs, clc LT16 can fit that niche the shear clamp method of construction allows for a builders playing with shear line or back deck curve. Both companies are friendly and responsive to customers. Nicks brother Eric has design plans called Merganser that looks good, no idea how it paddles, San Javier Kayaks in Berkeley Ca. has a couple models, too many choices out there!

> 4) Anything else??? it's only a kayak, get together with other people for learning paddling skills,get a used plastic kayak for $500 and paddle it while the boats under construction,or rent,beg, borrow etc. just to make sure your not making a garage ornament. Then again my boat spends more time on the van then in the water so what the heck.

anything else? gets lots of latex gloves,don't eat over raw wood kayak before glassing (hamburger drippings etc.),random orbital sanders are great, guys on the board mention scrapers enough to get me the the store, go for it