Hello again,
I just read your review on the site you linked- very inspiring. We too could not afford the high performance glass boats and Luke said to me "We should just build our own." Although at the time we lived in a one-room cabin on Otago Peninsula with no room for a project like this. I am impressed you built this kayak on your back porch!

I agree fully about the acceleration vs. cruising speed btw.... this baby goes like the energizer bunny.

THis is getting me very psyched to come up with our own design, and to be honest- it would be very similar to this since what we are after is a high performance touring kayak... the kind of boat to take us on grand tours of New Zealand.

Now I just need to come up with a wooden paddle for her (borrowed Luke's river paddle for our SI tour since that's all we had... was a slight bit epic)

Thanks again and maybe see you up north sometime!
Jillian