And I am very definately human.

I had to put up with a number of sliver fill ins around the swoops... not too bad, but certainly not up to Joe Greenly's standards. The artsy swoops took a full 8 hours to bend and inlay! That's a half hour per strip! Drove me batty.

Next time I will do something easy (!?) like diamonds or mother of pearl or something...

I did not think I had the patience for the dot and dash or diamond or triangle approach... but now that seems a lot easier than the tortured curves I fit.

I am building this one per Nick's standard instruction around the cockpit. I want to see what it feels like standard. I already have some ideas for a derivitive using the new computer design programs to work on the NEXT one. (I gotta start selling off some of the kayaks hanging in the barn!! )

Hey, Shawn, I do have one question... Regarding the cheek plates in Nick's design and balance braces... Greg Stammer's advice to do the balance brace is to let the hips fall down all the way to the side of the boat. Can I do this well enough with cheek plates or do I need to find a way to attach a back sling to the cockpit rim as has been done by others? I am eager to try Nick's seat on this rendition, to see if it works better for the layback rolling manuevers. Thus I need to design something to attach the seat straps onto.