I bought Nick's book as soon as I could get my hands on it. Presently I'm building a wee lassie II...and someday I'll finish it! But I've been "plotting" my next endevour. I started plotting out the Great Auk lines from Nick's offsets (manually, using grid paper), 'cause I've never kayaked before, it's supposed to be stable and the design can be shortened a little (17' is about the max for my building space). I didn't like the harsh angles of the deck from the sheer to peak, so I plotted some of the guillemot's lines "just to compare". I've not seen a real good picture of the Great Auk, but I've seen many pictures of the guillemot and I already like the design very much....but after comparing the two drawings of the offsets....well, what a contrast! The guillemot is truly beautiful; much preferred in those terms! Problem is, I'm a complete beginner, and I weigh 180#. Question is, would the guillemot be suitable for me, or should I go ahead and plan on building the Great Auk. The boat would pimarily be used at our local resovoir and other surrounding lakes, and the Great Auk looks as though it would cover the water straight and fast, the gullemot looks more maneuverable (and more "tippy") and would probably be more fun down the road. I was planning to build the Auk at about 15.5' long. Any advice is appreciated, but don't send me any fancy stuff to my email address....it is just plain old email (I found this site on the web from work, so I can occssionally look in). Thanks, G Reese