You might check out Rob Mack's Panache at Laughing Loon (he's got a web site, just search for Laughing Loon). It's a fairly large boat to start with, and I've made it even larger to accomodate my size 15 feet (this seems to be the critical area for my personal comfort in a sea kayak). I used a copy service to get 6% enlargements (ie. 106% copy size) of all the station patterns, which gave me about an inch and a half of extra clearance (a critical amount) forward of the cockpit. Increasing the length by 6% would have resulted in, I think, too long a boat, so I stretched everything by only 2% resulting in an overall length of about 18' 6". I did this after discussing with Rob Macks, the designer; he felt that for a heavier person, the extra volume wouldn't be a problem, although it might have been for somebody really light (I'm 205).

I'm about to glass the hull this weekend; the stripping went beautifully, although very slowly (I used NO staples). Boat won't be in the water for a long time yet (I have other projects in the works as well) so I won't be able to report on the boat's handling, with its new proportions, any time soon, but I'm very optimistic.

For what it's worth...

Don McCall