i too am a novice, just 4 months ago, june 19, i bought nicks book. from it with the help of this website and about 600$, including some new tools, i now have a very nice wood strip kayak.

it was built from scratch, including drafting the forms from nicks offset chart.

i cant tell you to do it this way. All i can say is i did, and it was far less frustrating than other projects i have done. in fact, the wood work was quite satisfying. the fiberglass sucked, but that was lack of experience, (the inside of my deck looks fantastic) it would not have mattered if it was kit or not.

if you buy a kit, it will cost twice as much, most of that labour. Really it only takes a day to mill the strips. everyone says you will get to that stage, i say why not do it now. its the process that is supposed to be fun. just take your time and learn how everthing works.

There is another way. i just got a catlog (lee valley?) that had a 70$ model strip kayak kit, with forms and strips and fiberglass and glue and instructions ect. 1/12 scale.

for 70$ you could build a model in your den and see if you have the skills, then build your full size. i might have done that had i known about the model.