Rehd,

Many good kayaks have already been mentioned, check into them. Others to look at if you want to really keep the cost down are the Pokomoke in Chris Kulczycki's "The Kayak Shop" and the Putz 18.5 in George Putz's book "Wood and Canvas Kayak Building". I wasn't all that frugal when I built my Putz 17 and I did it for $250. The 18.5 could be a nice light double. I haven't seen a Pokomoke except in the book, but I'm sure it would be lighter and faster than most production doubles. Both could be made with one large open cockpits, or two separate ones. The Putz doesn't give this option but the people on this BBS could help figure it out.

Mike