I have just glassed the outside of the hull of my North Star. Unfortunately, I have the same experience as a lot of others. I had extreme problems when I set up the forms and had to do a lot of adjustments in addition to the plans only having half stations drawn. They were even nested to each other, making it tricky and a little bit risky to draw them out. Considering the North Star plans to be the most expensive I have seen on the net, I was rather disappointed about all this.

The boat looks quite nice, though, but I am NOT going to build a Laughing Loon kayak the next time. My next boat will probably be either a Night Heron (I have bought the plans - they were superior in most ways to the Laughing Loon, eg by having the full stations drawn. Unfortunately I managed to destroy the plans by gluing them with wallpaper glue - BIG mistake!), a modified Guillemot or a Nomad of Björn Thommasson design (since I am Norwegian it could be nice to try a Swedish design).

Harald R.

> Thanks Ian and Nick for your feedback.

> Other people have answered me on the bulletin board regarding Rob's plans.
> I am vary thankful for their suggestions. Others have talked about there
> experaces building this boat and agreed that the amount of extra work
> needed is silly just because Rob has never stacked the stations on top of
> one another and seen the problem (Rob said he has never stacked the
> station plans on top of one another to check for fairness, as per a phone
> conversation I had with him), and corrected it. So here I site! On one
> hand I am looking at pictures of beautiful boats made by his plans, on the
> other I know that the plan are poorly done. My concusion is that these
> fine boats look so fine, because of there builders skill in shimming and
> fudging around with the lines to make it work out for them. If you get a
> chance to see his plans cheq out what I am talking about! But now it comes
> down to this for me, do I make small changes to fair up his plans and
> build the boat with 50 or so peices/strips of wood ($500.00 Canadian) or
> do what Rob suggests use 20 to 30 peices to fair up the boat, uping our
> wood quanity to 70 to 80 + strips at a aprox cost to us of $800.00
> Canadian (These costs are are as per peice cut and beveled by
> "Noeh's" "for your ark") plus how many hours of wasted
> time? Take a look at the plans, picture them in 3D, and tell me what you
> would do? Sorry I may be coming across strong, but how many more people
> are going to buy Rob's NORTH STAR plans and get a plan that is not up parr
> with what thay should be getting. Your plans Nick are at a completly
> differant level (I have seen your plans from drawing I made of your
> numbers in your book). So are dilemma as boat building enthusiasts is to
> except it or not, I don't! So now I am back to my job of modifying the
> plans or buy new one like your Expadition Guillemot.

> Cheers:Brian