Hello

My Guillemot got wet for the first time on august 3. After 15 months in my garage (including an 8 months pause) it was GREAT to finally try it in its right element
I have been able to paddle quite a lot the past weeks and I’m very pleased with its performance.
I spent (too?) much time drawing and thinking before I finally got started, so I couldn’t help but making a few changes.
My tweaks are:
I stretched it to 18' (like many) and scaled the end forms
I widened it a bit to aprox. 22”. Mainly because of my limited paddling experience (2 seasons in my plastic kayak which I never have felt secure in) 22 inches wide, the guil. certainly feels secure.
I built a rudder and footrest, mainly to have a small project to work on in between.
I added a rather long and low profiled fin at the stern.
The types of wood used are: local spruce and alder.
Now I will be paddling around with a smile on my face (can’t get it off) for a while before I start planning the next one. My paddling is done on the Trondheimsfjord, Norway

Thanks to everyone at this forum, I’ve learned a lot and picked up many helpful tips here. Thanks to Nick for a fabulous book and a very nice design.

Petter