that is really good to hear Wes. I am still plugging away at my heron and will probably not finish for another few weeks with next week off on holidays and very little time this week to work on it. It's driving me nuts. I'll just live vicariously through you, and feel free to email and tell me about any new performance characteristics (good or bad) that you discover as you get more and more used to it. I've never owned a kayak and have very little experience in one, so this should prove to be a good learning experience. I've done a heck of a lot of canoeing, so I'm not completely green. I figured I'd build something made for an intermediate to expert...then just practice with it until I qualify to use it. I'd rather not build something I can learn quickly then immediately want more performance. Fast is good!
ps. what is a skulling brace?

: My Night heron is very responsive, with a surprising amount of initial
: stability. It turns on a dime, is easy to roll and do a sculling brace in.
: It doesn't track quite as well as my Arluk III, but I didn't expect it to
: - it's not at all difficult to keep in a straight line, but you have to be
: careful to balance your strokes.

: I expected all of this.

: What I didn't expect is how fast the boat is: I went out this morning with a
: couple of friends - I usually have to work pretty hard to keep up with one
: of them - he's not racing but he does have a really strong forward stroke.
: It definitely took a lot less effort to keep up with him today.

: I love this boat!