Mike;

I live in northeastern Mass, (Haverhill) and would be happy to let you paddle my Night Heron (strip-built) if you'd like. Nothing like a test-paddle to decide if you like what you are about to spend a LOT of hours building.

My Night Heron was my first kayak build. I'm reaonably handy with woodworking, but no craftsman. I built without staples, so that adds time. I did quite a bit of "fancy" woodworking that added quite a bit of time, I was a real perfectionist with just about everything, which means I was not exactly fast at building. All that said, I guestimate I spent a total of about 400 to 450 hours from start (cutting the paper forms and pasting them to plywood) to finish, including cutting and putting cove & bead on my own strips. Cutting out all the fancy stuff might bring the time down to about 300 hours. Tough enough to squeeze into 4 weeks, and as others have said, you can't always work straight through. You have to wait for things like glue and epoxy to dry, etc.

The hybrid or even straight stitch & glue version of the Night Heron is a great option. Handles very much like the strip version.

Have you considered attending Nick's boat building class in Maine? Can't recall the time frame. Might not be June. But he walks you through building a S&G Night Heron in a week. Check out his website.

Anyway, feel free to contact me if you'd like to try out a Night Heron. Althoug I built mine with the "low" foredeck, I think you'll find it is plenty roomy for you.

And good luck, whatever you do.

Roger Turgeon
Orr's Island, ME
(& Bradford, MA)