Hi Guys, I’ve finally completed a Guillemot. 18 Months start to finish. I want to thank Nick for a superb book and also everyone who contributes to this forum, there is a wealth of information here and of course its easier to learn by other peoples mistakes.

I live in one of the most beautiful places on the plant, Cape Town South Africa. My house is situated 5 minutes drive from either the Indian or the Atlantic Oceans and that puts me literally on the tip of Africa. In South Africa, we do not have access to the same woods that you guys in the states and Canada do. I spent a lot of time looking into the locally available woods and also trying to assemble the tools required for the building process. I also had to convert all the measurements from Nicks book into metric units as everything here is measured in meters and centimetres as apposed to feet and inches.

I used three types of wood in the construction. Maranti, which is a locally available soft wood and is a type of mahogany, this was used to do the hull and some of the deck, its relatively cheep and easy to work with. The remainder of the deck is done in Ash and African Teak (Kiat), this gives a nice contrast.

Went for a first paddle last weekend and was surprised by the stability and speed. I was accompanied by a friend on a surf ski and managed to keep up with him quite easily. I have posted some pics of the construction, first launch and some pics of the area around where I stay. If there are any other South African boat builders on this forum, I would like to hear from you. I am interested to know what woods and suppliers other locals are using.

Sea kayaking is very popular here but I have yet to see a stripper. Most of the kayaks are fibreglass. Although I have not had the boat out much yet, it has already received a lot of attention. Now that I have completed one, I am trying to decide what to build next. This is completely addictive and needing a kayak for the wife gives me a good excuse to build another one.

The web site for those interested is:
http://www.spiralmedia.co.za/Kayak/index.htm Please excuse the lack of creativity but I uploaded these pics late last night.

Thanks again to everyone for the assistance.
Regards
Adrian