Hello all,

I have to say quickly that I find this forum very stimulating. I have been thinking of getting into kayaking as well as building kayaks for a while now. I have been eagerly reading as many posts as possible and trying to follow what is being said as much as a newbie can. It is sometimes hard to discern what one should do. Well that is not the point of this post.

I am from the northern midwest and am a frequent visitor of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. My interest in kayaks pertains to my experience in the BWCA. I noticed that many times the kayak you all refer to are called sea kayaks. In the boundary waters much of the time spent in the water is in cruising. I am used to canoing a big heavy monster and have been attracted to the light weight, exceptional handling (supposedly), and easy cruising that a kayak has been claimed to have. I am also a craftsman who is incredibly drawn to the task of building a beautiful kayak from scratch.

So I have been thinking of building a kayak that will fit my needs as an expedition kayaker (lots of cruising) on windy Minnesota lakes, for extended periods of time (about a week.) I am also looking for a kayak that can have a portaging system designed into it. I'd have to be able to carry it on my back with a full backpack of gear.

Earlier I mentioned that I noticed all reference here is to sea kayaks. Is there some reason that I should be looking to other kayaks to fit my needs? I am definitely not looking for a white water kayak nor something that needs to be incredibly manueverable in tight spaces. Do you all have experience with this type of kayaking? I have noticed that there are some Minnesotans who post on here and I would assume that they would take advantage of the BWCA. What kayaks do you use for this purpose?

I was thinking of the guillemot expedition single but have been a little scared by a recent post describing its poor tracking. Is this true? I will mostly be hitting calm lakes with high winds and wouldn't want to be correcting too much. Ten hours a day of rowing is enough work without having to expend extra energy in correcting my path.

So do you all have any suggestions as to what kind of designs might fit my needs or possibly how I could modify one of the other designs to fit my needs? There are so many resources out there (at least to the newbie) that it is very overwhelming trying to collect the information needed to formulate a battle plan.

I have been following the building of Spidey's kayak really eagerly and have been possibly OVER excited about it. I am really impressed by his methodology (No staples.) What methodologies do you all suggest for a first timer? Is Spidey's approach a little bit ambitious for a first timer (are you a newbie spidey?) I will of course be getting the book from this site to help me along but I want to make use of as much current building innovation as possible.

Ok before this gets too long, any quick kayak or plan suggestions would be a great help. I do want it to be a strip built kayak. They are SO beautiful.

Thanks again, Ryan Arnold