: If I do not buy the kit set, I buy the materials / tools / plan according to
: the The strip-built sea kayak mentioned. I can spend two days a week in
: the workshop. How long should I expect to build a kayak.

OK, with all the true confessions, here's my tale. For my birthday in the summer of '04, I asked the family for no presents, just one week of time all to myself. In that time I put together strongbacks and stripped two hulls using staples and pre-beveled strips: a Laughing Loon Shooting Star, and a One Ocean Storm SLT. I lost at least a day in a failed effort to create a rigid internal beam for the SLT, junked it, and went with an external strongback--and never looked back. At the end of the week, both completed but unsanded hulls went into the garage rafters. The following year, I finished the SS in about 4 weeks of casual work. In '07 I finished the SLT, from unsanded hull to finished boat, in eight days of crazy-frantic work, at the end of which I was nearly comatose--but the boat was done. I found I could not remember a single thing I had done on a given day of that week, but the dang thing floated.

This summer, my daughter and I put together a CLC Wood Duck 12 Hybrid in about four weeks, start to finish. I went stapleless, or nearly so, on all three decks and did hardwood coaming lips and risers, inventing some coaming shortcuts on the way. All in all, an exhilarating set of experiences, but just the same, I think I'll take my time on the next stripper.

Bottom line, go for it, right?

--Scott