: Well, Its been about a week since I finally finished my Guillemot Petrel. I'm
: pretty pleased with the way it turned out. This was my first stripper and
: It definatly won't be my last..... next on the list is a canoe.

: I really can't take credit for a few things on the boat, these are the seat
: and backband, recessed bungee fittings and paddle park. All of this work
: was done by Dan Caouette of Clear Stram Woodworking in NH. It was an
: absolute pleasure dealing with Dan, and his work really speaks for itself,
: without his pieces the kayak wouldn't not be as interesting as it is.

: I must also thank everyone that helped me on this Forum, of course there were
: problems along the building process and all of them were solved without me
: pulling too much hair.

: A few notes about the boat.
: It is indeed a Guillemot Petrel however there is one alteration that I made
: which was to the cockpit recess area. This was something that I had a
: mound of trouble doing and I just didn't go about it the correct way. I
: love the recessed cockpit design but It just didn't come out the way I
: wanted so I went with the traditional coaming, I hope Nick doesn't cringe
: too much.....

: The main wood is of course Western Red Cedar which took about two months to
: find pieces that I liked. I tried to keep everything dark brown and I
: really found some excellent old growth cedar that looks amazing.
: The other species are Alaskan Yellow Cedar for the accent strips and down the
: middle of both the deck and hull is a think strip of Padauk which turned
: out really well.
: The hull is 6oz e-glass with Carbon/Kevlar hybrid on the inside which I
: really like. The deck is 4oz e-glass both sides. No varnish yet only epoxy
: so its not at its full sheen that will come in a few weeks.

: I hope everyone likes it, it was a real pleasure to see something go from
: pieces of flat stock to a finished product.
: Enjoy

: Pat Deopp
: Pitman, NJ

Boat looks great, finally got a chance to look at the pictures at home, for some reason I was blocked from them at work. I second (third?) saying the seat is really cool, how'd you make that? Much prettier than a carved piece of foam

Bill H.