I attended the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium this weekend at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and met the first one of you guys on this board. Grant Goltz was there with his Squeedunk kayaks. You may have remembered his feverish posts the week before, as he frantically built a couple kayaks that had decks made of layers of veneer and cloth/epoxy -- vacuum-bagged. They looked nice, as did his deckline fittings. I also had the opportunity to paddle his Puffin, which I had seen ~8 months ago on this board, and thought looked pretty goofy at the time. It's a re-creation of a Bearing Sea kayak. He let me paddle it, but gave me a funny look and said "you're not going to like it after paddling your Outer Island." Surprisingly, though, it was a nice little (14') kayak. It has a 19" waterline, so it was fairly efficient and low in initial stability, but had HUGE secondary stability because of the hull flare. It would be a great kayak for fisherman or birder who wanted to paddle in rivers and estuaries. It has a high coaming, and a high-backed seat which would be great for kicking back and soaking a worm. Maybe a good kid's boat, too, given the length and maneuverability.

Dean