: I am looking for a small decked canoe or kayak that can handle two adults, be
: transported on an Escort and be very stable. I liked the idea of a kayak,
: with its low sides and decking. I like the roominess of a canoe, but I
: don't like the high sides in wind. I was looking at the CLC Mill Creek or
: the Wee Lassie II. Can I just deck a Wee Lassie II? For that matter, can I
: take a kayak plan and open up the cockpit for two people? Any ideas,
: suggestions or websites would be great.

: My main criteria are in order of preference: stability (initial and final),
: room to carry a day pack for two adults, total capacity of at least 400
: lbs, as short as possible, tracking, low in the water so wind doesn't
: significantly affect the boat, speed.

I'm curious about why you are looking for something that is as short as possible. Let me ask this from the other viewpoint: How long would be too long? Is 16 feet long out of the question?

In general terms, if two boats have the same beam but different lengths, you will get a bit more speed from the longer boat. With a longer boat you get a narrower boat for the same displacement, too. That also increases speed. Tracking usually inproves in a longer boat, too. So, I'd approach this from the direction of first picking the longest boat you could accomodate, and then looking at something that is wide enough and stable enough.

In a tandem canoe or kayak you want enough room between the paddlers for comfort. (I hate being in the stern when the bow paddler constantly splashes!) If you want to separate the paddlers a bit, you are going to be looking at greater length.

A decked canoe is called for when you expect water to come splashing over the sides, so I'm guessing you are thinking of open water. With a kayak which has a long single cockpit you can make a spray cover that has two openings, and that, too, will help keep the splashing water out of the boat.

While some plans for double or tandem kayaks come with drawings for 2 individual cockpits, you can usually modify the deck design and install a larger single cockpit if you prefer the openness. Just by looking at a few pictures of kayaks with long, open cockpits you can pretty much draw your own.

There is a picture below of a 15 foot kayak with a 6 foot long cockpit opening. This one as a beam of 30 inches, which give a goodly displacement of 550 pounds, which should be fine for your needs. The width is abut halfway between the typical kayak and the typical canoe, so you'll get better speed than with a canoe, and since the boat is low in the water it won't be a big windcatcher.

This particular boat is made of a wooden frame which is covered with canvas. If a canvas skinned boat concerns you, you can take the same plans, build the frame, and cover the frame with thin plywood (1/8th inch or 3mm) instead. The seams would be sealed by an application of epoxy resin over a strip of fiberglass cloth. After sanding that smooth you would simply paint the boat. I'd suggest a coat or two of epoxy resin as a primer, but for economy you could just go with marine paints. If you expect to encounter rocky landing points you may want to add a layer of fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin to the bottom of the boat, or, you can make the bottom of 1/4 inch thick plywood instead of 1/8th inch. You can also do a hybrid, with a plywood hull and a waterproofed canvas deck. This plan, by the way is from clarkcraft and is their "roomy open double 15 -- canvas covered"
The url is below. The clarkcraft homepage is www.clarkcraft.com
Take a look at the Touring Double 15, which is 32 inches wide, which should give more stability, has a longer open cockpit, and holds 50 pounds more.

I mentioned the above design mainly because there was a picture handy showing a large open cockpit. There are quite a few boats in the 15 foot range which are being sold in kits, or as plans only, which you could adapt in the the same manner. The big thing you would want to worry about would be the amount of space under the deck in front of the bow paddler. A 15 foot boat designed as a solo boat will have a deck that slopes rather steeply after the coaming. While the deck's slope should clear the feet of a centrally located paddler, putting a paddler further forward would give them little room for their feet.

If you are comfortable in a canoe, you cna cetainly consider ading a deck to one. In his book on strip-built canoes, David Hazen shows how to add a fabric deck toa canoe by cutting a groove in the underside of the wooden outer gunwale. The fabric is wrapped over the top of the canoe, and held in the groove by a cord which is pressed in. This is just like how a piece of window screen material is held in an aluminum frame. By pulling out the cord you can remove the cloth deck.

One of Hazen's canoe designs has a very low bow and stern which would minimize the effects of wind. although these would be longer than the designs I've previously mentioned, you might be able to either shorten the Hazen design, or adapt similar ends to another canoe design. Check with your library for a copy of this book, (be sure to ask about interlibrary loan) or you can buy it online from Amazon.com or another online bookseller.

hope this helps

PGJ