: So far, I've found the Caspian Sea by John Winters, and toyed with shrinking
: a Great Auk 11/12ths(length only, maybe drop the deck a little). Any
: thoughts on these or other choices?

Hi Dave -
I'm VERY familiar with the Caspian Sea. I own a production kevlar version from QCC as the Q400 and built one as a stripper, then stretched it to 16' as an ultralight hybrid. It's a very good boat, I don't hesitate to put complete novices in it, yet I like to paddle it as a fishing, photography, confused chop boat. It's long waterline and design make it an efficient and fairly fast boat, lot's of glide with each paddle stroke. Actually, it has more waterline than many 17' boats. It's very stable. John Winter's thinks it's probably his best design.

At 5', your wife might find the deck too high, almost 14". It would be easy to reduce the height of the sheer amidships on the boat, or just put in a cockpit recess. I lowered it by an inch on the ultralight and it's now being paddled by a 5'3" 120lb friend who loves it. The Caspian Sea is also excellent in confused chop and whitecaps. If I had to have only one boat, for any application, it would be the Caspian Sea, followed by the Cape Ann Storm for a performance boat. It's also a very straight-forward build. I gave my Dragonfly to a friend as a get well gift from a knee replacement, so I'll probably build another next winter but stretch it to 16' for my height and weight. At 15'3" it would be a bit sluggish if I loaded it up with camping gear and my 6'1" 200lbs hulk.

http://www.kozelguitars.com/sofproject/_res/oookxje6.jpg

http://www.kozelguitars.com/sofproject/sofproject.htm

Jim