OK, apparently the BB software doesn't do html entity escaping. Sorry about that, here's my post, cleaned up to get through the software. Also, I'm not sure how to delete the above post. If anyone knows, please let me know, so I won't need to do this messed up threading again. Thanks :)

Hello,

I'm new to kayaking. I've spent some time on sit on tops, and some time in a very few sit in kayaks. The first kayak I sat in that made much sense to me was Nick Schade's Night Heron. I really like skinny boats. I'm not sure why. I'm told they're unstable. I was actually hesitant to get in one at first, thinking I'd immediately flip it or some other such nonsense, but when I was in it, it felt far more natural than wider, more "stable" boats did, as if it was part of my body, like a good sport bike, and it just moved and did exactly what I wanted it to do. I could drive my paddle down right next to me, and get a great push off, without having to edge very much, and when I did want to edge, it moved with me easily, not resisting like the more stable kayaks did. It made sense. Of course, it's also an expensive boat to build, incredibly time consuming, and I'm honestly afraid it might be beyond my skillset.

Then I discovered Skin on Frame, and specifically, Yostwerks. These boats are beautiful, look simple enough to build, in theory (I just torched my first attempt, but I was also learning to use my new saw at the same point, and I've got enough plywood left over to start my next attempt without even buying another sheet :) )

However, I've been reading a fair bit about the virtues of short boats. As I am not a very athletic paddler, and am more than happy bumping along at 3-4 kts, if that much, I'd pondered trying to put together a boat that's both short (<15 feet) and narrow (<20 inches) I've noticed that there are a number of long, skinny boats, and a number of short, fat boats, but few short skinny boats.

I only weigh about 150 sopping wet, and I'm 5"10", so getting enough buoyancy and displacement shouldn't be a problem. I'm half tempted to try either shortening a Sea Rider, or perhaps trying to narrow up a Sea Tour 15R.

I'm a little hesitant to start mucking with other peoples designs before building my first boat, but I've talked to a number of people that say this is pretty much par for the course, and how people arrive at the boat that's best for them (after no small amount of experimenting) Is this a good idea? Is this a stupid idea? Any advice for determining how to go about doing this the intelligent way?

Thanks. :)

-- James