Thanks very much for the info and referrals.

I want a boat that I can take in coastal open water, surf and swell as I do my Romany, and would like significantly more waterline than I get in that boat (not terribly difficult given how much of the Romany is not in the water. I'd like to be able to use the boat I build for short races now and again. These are the reasons I'm looking to build a longer boat, rather than a shorter one.

: You might look at One Ocean Kayak's plans, they have several boats that will
: fit you well. The wood strip kayaks btw will generally take much longer to
: build than S&G, not necessarily any harder to build, just time consuming.

: I wouldn't lock yourself into a length though, a smaller lighter paddler can
: keep up easily with longer boats with heavier paddlers in them, specially
: at a cruising pace. Not many kayakers will paddle at a pace faster than
: that for any length of time. And shorter lighter boats can be far easier
: to paddle at these speeds than a longer one.

: Bill H.