: http://www.shutterfly.com/my/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b31978258481

: Try the above link for photos.

: I did not wait for my Shooting Star to be totally done to launch it. I had a
: chance to go up north to Humboldt County this past weekend and had to give
: the new boat a splash. I hastily sprayed one coat of varnish on her and
: grabbed a seat out of another boat before hitting the road. The paddling
: conditons were very calm the first day in the water. The second day was
: very windy, but calm water in a protected bay. I hoped for some waves to
: see how the SS would perform in the type of water it seems it will be best
: suited for. That will have to wait for another day and for me to finish
: the seating, varnish and deck lines etc..

: My first impression is that this is a very well behaved kayak. I reduced the
: molds by 3% in a copy machine, leaving the spacing as designed. The
: finished boat is 21" wide. I found the boat to have plenty of initial
: stability as well as lots of secondary. I found the SS to be very
: forgiving and well balanced. At no time did it not go where I pointed it,
: even in winds gusting over 25 knots. The tracking was excellent, yet a
: simple sweep turned her without a proplem. My impressions of speed are
: that this boat is very respectable overall keeping in mind that it is less
: that 16' 6". It does not seem quite as fast as my Outer Islands, but
: that impression may change in choppy water. I will let you know.
: No boat can do everything perfect. I have heard rumors that there are
: kayakers owning only one boat. I can't imagine that, but it could be true.
: My initial feelings are that this is an outstanding design. Everytime I
: finish a new boat I think it is the most beautiful boat I have ever seen.
: This design seems particularly beautiful and elegant. My hat off to Rob!!

: Some additional info if you are interested. I built the hull out of western
: red cedar with sitka spruce accents. The strips are milled to 3/16"
: and some bead and cove was used and some planed edges. The hull was
: stapled and the deck was done using hot glue. All strip seams were put
: together with Gorilla Glue. I made the mini decks and bulkheads out of
: 1/4" Devinicell foam with a layer of fiberglass on each side. The
: mini decks are veneered with some quilted maple that I cut up into veneer.
: This foam is light weight and easy to work with. I used 2 layers of 3.2 oz
: satin finish glass inside and out, except the inside of the deck which has
: 1 layer. This saves weight but is a fair bit more labor intensive and a
: pain in the neck. There is some carbon fiber in strategic places inside to
: add strength. I borrowed a friends scale after the hull and deck were
: seamed together on the inside, bulkheads installed, cockpit coaming
: complete and it weighed 30 pounds. I had to return the scale, so I don't
: know the exact finished weight but it cant't be much more than 32 lbs. It
: feels like a feather when I pick it up. The aft deck has been lowered
: behind the cockpit to reduce the cockpit volume and making rolling a bit
: easier. The foward end has also been dropped a bit as per Rob's plans. I
: will add more when I get to paddle in other conditions.

: Enjoy!

: Ken Katz
Ken-My compliments on your boat, it's drop dead gorgeous! Beautiful job on a beautiful design! Wish I was within the weight range to build the Shooting Star; alas, it could only be a dayboat for me, so I'm going to build the North Star instead. I'm curious as to your experience with Gorilla glue; did you have trouble with excess foaming? If not, how did you go about limiting the foaming? I've used it to glue up high-density urethane sign panels; with that broad an application, it foamed a lot. I've never applied it as frugally as per stripping a boat; any special tips/tricks?-Greg