If you don't emphasize it, you'll never get there. You have to be extremely careful with everything to realize those weights.

If you're careless and just build the darn thing, you'll have a 60 lb. boat. Trust me, I have a 57 lb. Chesapeake 17. If you're conscious of weight, you can easily get a 45 lb. boat from a 40 lb. design. If you're critical about the weight, you can meet or beat that 40 lb. design.

And yes, the biggest benefit is carrying the boat from garage to car, and car to water. If it's too heavy, you won't like carrying it, and you'll use that as an excuse to not go paddling. It happens. Especially if you're a solo paddler--if you're with a group and they're all paddling plastic pigs, you won't let it slow you down, because your heavy 60 lb. wood kayak is still 15 lbs. lighter than their plastic boats.

Shawn

> I have noticed the obvious theme in this BBS....light, light, light. Are
> there any issues with extra weight beside the extra effort to carry to the
> water? Being a first time builder with no epoxy/glass experience building
> a Guillemot what can I expect as a likely range. Nick's version is ~ #40,
> do I actually have a chance at being close to 40.