: I'm looking to build my first SOF and right now am trying to pick a design to
: start off.

: The three I like most so far are (in no specific order) Bjorn Thommason's
: Black Pearl, the Tom Yost's Sea Glider, and Nick Schade's Petrel.

: I'm inclined to do the Petrel, since I had a chance to paddle it in the strip
: version and I liked it quite a bit: probably the most playful of the bunch
: just by looking at the rest, just stable enough, though probably a smidgen
: slower than the other two in a straight line...

The Petrel, based on a short trial I was able to make this spring, is indeed a playful kayak. It did seem to weathercock a noticeable amount with the skeg up, which is not a problem with a retractable skeg. If it weathercocked as much in an SOF version that might be annoying.

I haven't heard of any weathercocking problems with the Black Pearl, and you could have Bjorn size the plans to suit your desired stability. If you were to build the Pearl as a stripper using Bjorn's speedy construction technique, it might not take much longer than an SOF version, especially since you would have to derive the SOF framework from the stripper plans.

Len Thunberg