: I am interested in building the Guillemot, but I am concerned with several
: design aspects of the boat. I typically do weekend trips in both open
: water and rivers (not whitewater). Considering the relatively short
: waterline length, is this boat suitable for longer trips? Has anyone used
: this boat for a weekend or longer excursion? Also, the boat seems to have
: fairly hard chines, does this decrease the secondary stability? How stable
: is this boat in rough waters? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I build a hybrid Guillemot, and have used it similar to what you describe (rivers for day trips and weekend trips on lakes) although I Do not have a lot of experinence with it yet. Further more, the boat itself is not exactly the same as the strip version. Having put a deck on it by 'eyeball' the volume comments may be invalid. Hopefully others will comment too.

I found it surprisingly stable. I've only once tipped it, and that was on purpose when I was trying to roll it (failed horribly, and will try again, when I have a proper seat). So I can not really say what the secondary stability is like, but it is good enough that I've not had a chance to find out either.

The volume is a bit low for a weekend trip, but not un-dooable, it depends on how you pack. If you want a tent, bulky sleeping bag, ground mat, and a couple of blue tarps, and a change of clothes, and food, it is tight. My sleeping bag is pretty bulky and takes a fair bit of room, and pushes up on the rear hatch if I'm not careful. I'll often strap the ground mat on the deck.

I'm weighing in around 190lbs now-a-days, and that is putting me just over the design weight, with the weight of the kayak brought into the equation. So with the load I'm well over the design weight.

I want to build a bigger kayak for longer trips, and I'd likely use it for weekend trips as well. I'm considering the S+G gullemot again, but increasing the depth of the hull an inch or so, or an overall increase of the panel sizes by 5-10%, this should give me the volume capacity I need.

As for river performance:

I've used it on the Bow River in Calgary, and the Highwood river near by. both Class I, no rapids above class II, but not allways exactly lazy rivers. I found that it handled it well. Waves at about 1.5ft were no problem, this is both standing waves, and mixed chop. I've not had it in worse on a river. Although the nose did bury into the standing waves, and pop up, but I'm over the deisgned weight limit.

There is a bit of 'skeginess' to the hull, that is the stern of the hull has a wee bit of reverse rocker to it. I'm not sure if this is due to the design, or my building/cutting of the plywood panels. I suspect design, as it would help with tracking on flat lakes, and I suspect with surfing on big waves. However, I'm told this is bad news for River paddleing as the current will grab the back end when doing back ferries, or back paddling. I've not really had a problem with it and feel it handles well with back ferries, but do not have the paddeling experince to say how it behaves relative to other kayaks.

So I'm not sure if this answers any of you questions. I'm happy with my kayak, that is for sure. For day trips it is more or less exactly what I want. but like I said I'm wanting another bigger one for longer trips.

Myrl