> Hello -

> My husband and I are trying to decide on the right boat to build
> for me. I am 125 pounds and 5 foot 4 inches tall. I am looking for
> a high performance boat for day trips, or weekenders at the most,
> along rivers and for wave surfing in the ocean. Is the Patuxent 17.5
> a good choice for me? I have good experience in kayaks and feel I
> definetly need a step up from my current kayak. Any information regarding
> the performance of the Patuxent would be great. Or if you can recommend
> another kit boat you may think is better. Thanks for you help. - Holli
>

I test paddled a Patuxent. It was kind of tippy and confining for me but I was really looking for a boat I could go camping in, etc. The Patuxent may be a good choice for 1 day outings. It is certainly a speedy boat. CLC is now also offering a very attractive greenland style boat. They say "it is easy to roll and a good thing given its 20 inch beam". I built a chesapeake 16 recently. It handles rough conditions much better than my sealution. It is trivially faster so far as I can tell. It has good initial and secondary stability. I am discovering a whole new world of leaning, sculling, edging etc. It is sharp looking albeit I inadvertently ended up with a bit of twist in hull which gives boat a slight tendency to pull to the left. I am in process of fixing this.

Dave