Well, with a lot of help and ideas from everyone on this board, both directly and indirectly, the successful launch and christening (with my 15 month old son's apple juice) of my Guillemot 17 happened this past weekend.

Here are some of the specifics: The hull is Western red cedar and Redwood; wrapping up onto the deck fore and aft. White pine makes up the majority of the deck, with two intertwining bands of purpleheart loosly hugging the cockpit. The recess is also purpleheart, with an ash coaming and bow and stern stems.

Flush hatches fore and aft with internal bungees, ethafoam bulkheads, recessed ash deck fittings, and a retractable skeg with a recessed sliding cockpit adjustment. A molded fiberglass seat covered in 1/16" neoprene, a pillar backrest made of ethafoam and minicell, and internally mounted footbraces. Total weight comes in at 47 pounds, due in large part I'm sure to the purpleheart and skeg.

I'm happy to report that the boat is SPECTACULAR on the water- it turns on a dime and accelerates beautifully. However, I am VERY happy that I took the extra time to install the skeg- I'm not a very strong paddler yet, and with the skeg deployed the boat tracks like it's on rails. It is an absolute joy to paddle.

Hopefully I'll have a few more pictures (with better detail)in the near future.

Todd