I should have the deck on my Shooting Star complete this week and it looks great. I am the tinkerer type and reduced the station size by 3% while leaving the frame spacing the same. I like low volume boats and thought that modification could only make the boat more appealing to me. As I watch the boat take shape I have no regrets about the change. I do realize, however, that I would probably like the boat as designed. I have built a number of strippers as well as many other boats and find this one to be a real winner in the asthetics department. I expect it will be a great boat to play with on San Francisco bay.

In my opinion, the plans are well done and Rob's manuel is more than adequate for a first time builder. I don't think this is a particulary difficult boat to build. It offers an "opportunity" to play with steam bending which is not rocket science. I think Rob's solution to creating the bow and stearn of a Baidarka in wood strip form is very cleaver and looks great. Some of my SOF Baidarka friends curl their lip a bit at the notion of a strip Baidarka. It is just evolution as far as I am concerned. I don't think the Aleuts used aluminum tube and dacron when they developed the concept.

I will post some photos of the SS when I get a bit further on. So far it is a real "sex machine" to look at!

Ken