Thanks, Dean. You're right...and you've got me pegged pretty closely...I've heard others use such adjectives as "anal, obsessed, ISTJ off the chart, Type A, big time, etc. My problem is ... I'm "left brain hemisphere dominant" and have little creative juices flowing. Woodworking is my hobby, but without a set of plans you'd get a great laugh at my results!...So, the boat plans and detailed book are just what I need...but to get fancy with the pattern I'll have to solicit the help of my ('extremely opposite') spouse. I think I will try to get a little fancy with my first boat...what the heck...let's raise the bar!
: Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to make a kayak that is fancier
: than what you've seen on this bulletin board. Make somithing so fantastic
: that it makes the rest of us cringe with envy. It's called 'raising the
: bar.'

: I think Shawn's work of art was his first stripper, if I remember correctly,
: after having built a Chesapeake. I built my Outer Island with some inlays
: after only having built a Pygmy kit. How fancy you can get probably has
: more to do with your own level to attention to detail (read:
: retentiveness) than experience. You can make your first kayak an
: outstanding one.

: Dean