: 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.

I think he probably would have if I had asked a specific question. It's too early in the game for me for specific questions. I'm just trying to read through the instructions and get a feel for them.

: You mention that you are building a canoe. Is it a Laughing Loon design?

No, it's a Green Valley Kipawa II stitch and glue canoe. So the Shooting Star would be my first kayak and first stripper.

: 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.

I work in an unheated garage as well, but I'm in North Carolina so my buildng season is quite a bit longer than yours.

: Materials: Are you milling your own strips?

I'll either buy them or have someone mill them for me. Either way, I'll probably try to have them done all at once.

: 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.

This question is far beyond anything I'm ready to even think about. I think I understand the challenge, though.

: 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.

I'd love to see the photos and notes. Since I won't know what I'm doing either, I'm sure I can learn a lot from what you did.

Thanks,

Patsy