Five years ago I built a Merganser 17' from plans. I am 6'-0 and 195lbs, and have paddled whitewater for over 20 years. I have also built hardwood furniture.

The Merganser has been a very good first sea kayak for me, and my main use has been exploring lakes in Montana, and Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks -- all day trips. The Merganser definitly has enough volume for a few days of camping. The Merganser has been a great cruiser, and is, for me, a hard tracking kayak. The hard chines assist in leaned turns, but when exploring meandering shorelines, the boat turns like a more like a train, which is OK. On large, slow rivers, the Merganser handles fine -- just plan your turns a little early. I recently spoke with an experienced sea kayaker, and he stated that hard chine kayaks typically are stiffer tracking than soft chine kayaks. The Merganser is not, for me, a playful kayak -- it's a reasonably fast, good reliable cruiser, and fun to paddle in strait lines and large arcs. It's a great boat for lake cruising.

At rest, the Merganser is a little twitchy for fishing or photograpy, as dictated by the shallow V hull. I am sure that with more cargo, the boat would be more solid at rest. Otherwise, one stroke of the paddle, and full stabilty returns.

Since I come from a whitewater background, a playful boat is very maneuverable, so I chose the build a strip Guillemot for my play boat and for rivers. I have only paddled the boat once, as I am still finishing it, but the Guillemot is very maneuverable, and is not as fast as the Merganser. I greatly look forward to its full completion.

Given the inherent tracking characteristics of hard chine designs, I recently searched for multi-chine S&G designs, and landed on the Shearwater Bluefin. Since it is not a hard chine boat, it should be more maneuverable than the Merganser, perhaps even playful. Your height & weight fit as a play boat, and most likely for light-gear touring. Eric Shade is a thoughtful, experienced designer, and the Bluefin is available as plans. I thought his pre-cut panel-only kit looked like an attractive package too.

As a furniture builder, you should have an easy time with the woodworking aspect of boat-building. For me, I put more energy into learning about fiberglass and epoxy. Go to Sweet Composits and read about fiberglass. One Ocean Kayaks has great on-line tutorials. This forum is outstanding.
Chris