> I have abandoned my plan to build a strip kayak. I really wanted to build
> one, but I work pretty late and have a long commute, which leaves me with
> little building time, let alone kayaking time.

Okay, I'll weigh in here, too, David. Lots of good gouge before this note, but, for a referrence point, CLC says that their kits can save you somewhere around 20% over buying the plans and assembling the materials; but this is going to be very dependent on where you are, and how close you are to the supply chain. (In my case, CLC is 20 minutes from my driveway.)

I'm finishing a CLC North Bay from a kit now. It's not my first kayak, but it's my first woodworking project of any significance ever! And it's beautiful. You can put a kit together quickly, or you can get really anal about it and take forever; I've chosen the latter path. (I was at CLC a while back and mentioned to Chris that I thought I was getting a little too anal about the boat and, in very unpolitical style, he agreed immediately; hey, I was just looking for sympathy, not honesty!) Meantime, I've still got three other boats to paddle.

CLC kits are great. The instructions are okay, but occasionally not as clear or complete as I would have liked. Chris is running another BBS parallel to this one for S&G discussion, and he and/or John Harris, his shop boss, answer a lot of the questions posed. It's on the CLC website, and worth a look. The end product, I will agree, is not the "coffee table" beauty that I've seen in some of Nick's strip boats, but it's definitely a beautiful, functional and well designed kayak. Enjoy!

Jack Martin