Patsy,
Congratulations on your purchase! The baidarka style kayaks designed by Mr. Macks are truly works of art. I'm surprised he hasn't responded to your inquiry personally, as he takes great pains to make himself available to builders of his designs.

This bulletin board is also a great resource. I'm in the final stages of assembly of the North Star. I would be happy to share my experiences with you, as I have been keeping a journal of my progress since I began this project almost two years ago. Granted, the North Star and the Shooting Star are different boats, however, there are some very significant similarities.

I guess I have some questions for you, regarding the references you have available and some particulars regarding your buiilding environment.

You mention that you are building a canoe. Is it a Laughing Loon design? Rob Macks has a particular style in his writing and in his practices that may need adaptation on your part, considering availablility of tools, strip pattern style, building methods, and shop environmental controls. By nature of the design and the medium used to construct these baidarka style boats, a certain amount of adaptation is neccessary on the builder's part, when transfering the design to wood strip construction. These baidarka boats were primarily designed to be built as skin on frame boats. The biforcated bow and swept stern are results of the the skin wraping around the stem pieces. Taking these characteristics from skin on frame to wood stirp poses a challenge for the builder. One of the most important to me was deciding on strip pattern, especially as it related to placement of the accent strip, and the strips that join the upper bow piece and the lower bow piece. The swept stern was a very big consideration when strip pattern of the entire boat was being decided.

References:
The instructions for my North Star were an adaptation of construction instructions Mr. Macks used for another design. Photographs and drawings particular to the North Star were added in, otherwise most of the photographs showed a different boat being built. This was not particularly detrimental to the assembly, but a certain amount of inference was necessary on my part in order to "visualize" each process. This "feature" is compounded by the insistance of the designer to "follow His instructions" without improvisation.

This North Star that I am completing is not the first boat I've been engaged in assembling. I drew on my experience, and the experiences and suggestions of other fellows associated with this bulletin board. Speaking of which, a man by the name of Steve (sorry Steve I lost all my e-mail files prior to Labor Day and I lost your address) completed or was completing a Shooting Star for his wife last spring. Search the archives for his post. The word "Shooting Star" was part of the designation. He had built a North Star prior to the Shooting Star he was completing for his wife.

Building environment:
Are you working in a space that will facilitate the processes regardless of temperature? In the instructions for my North Star, it seems as if Mr. Macks assumed that all the builders would be able to do the steps in the order he did them. I found this not to be the case because I live in Wisconsin, working in an unheated garage.

Materials:
Are you milling your own strips? If so, will you mill them all at once or will you mill them as you need them as indicated in my instructions for the North Star?

Strip pattern:
How do you intend to accomidate the trisected deck? I found it very difficult to match strip pattern stem to stem. The seams at the minidecks posed a very serious challenge in this respect for me. I met it with mixed results.

Stern Tail piece:
I had my strips milled for me from Classic Boat Kits, of Ontario Canada. Mr. Schultz instructed me to laminate the strips that would comprise the tail piece out of 1/8" cedar. The bonding agent I used was wood glue, and when it came time to fair the hull, I ended up sanding to the bonding agent...leaving a less than ideal finish. Otherwise I followed the instructions as they were outlined in my instructions. Constructing the tailpiece seperate from the main hull posed problems when it came time to set up the stations for the rest of the boat. This problem was compounded by a limited vantage point from behind the boat to line up the stations on the center mark. The bottom line, a slightly cockeyed stern tail piece.

I've taken photographs of my progress, and taken notes. I would be happy to share them with you, however be forewarned...I don't know what I'm doing really. I would be merely telling you what I did. An honest assesment is that I met with varied success, however that assesment is subjective.

Good luck to you, Sincerely,
Bill Cruz
PS
I left an excerpt from my entries on this bulletin board under the "Bad Haiku Vol 2, number 1" string of posts for an example of how the journal reads. I left the personal things in to lend a human feel to the "picture" that Mike was requesting. It was also easier to pass it on without much editing.

: I just bought the instructions for Rob's Shooting Star so I could have
: something to puzzle and dream over. Looks like it will take some serious
: study to figure out that bow and stern. Anyone out there who has built it
: willing to be a mentor/resource? Probably not a good idea to tackle it for
: my first kayak, but I've never been one to shy away from a challenge. :-)
: I haven't decided yet - just investigating.

: The canoe is still not done but edging ever closer (just to answer your
: questions before you have to ask them). We've got the gunnels glued on and
: sanded down and they look beautiful. Gives the boat a totally different
: look - much more "finished" looking. I'm almost done rounding
: the edges on them. Next up are the decks.

: Patsy