Just built my first SOF, a Sea Tour 17R and took it out for the maiden voyage on Sunday. First time I've ever paddled a SOF and I was pleasantly surprised. It was much faster than I thought it would be, about the same as my QCC 600x. 5 mph was pretty easy, 5.5 was a good workout/race pace, and a full on sprint got up to 6.5 mph.

I'm 6'1" 170lbs and the boat feels too big for me (except for my size 11 feet which feel about right with no shoes on). I felt most comfortable sitting on one of those throwable flotation/seat cushions that was a couple inches tall (before I sat on it). A little more detail work on the cockpit/foot pegs though and I think I'll have a downright nice boat.

Used Pine for the stringers, regular 1/2" AC plywood for the sections and 8oz nylon covered in ZAR (less than 1/2 gallon). Tipped the scales at 33lbs.

It was a fairly rough and quick build. Lots of little things could have been improved along the way but I just wanted to get one done and under my belt to get a feel for what the process was like (and so I could paddle it before ice up). I'm looking forward to the next one (and the one after that, and the one after that......)

Thanks to all for making the posts in the archives. This is my first post but I've spent hours here reading and researching. Links to a few pictures here- http://www.flickr.com/photos/7935459@N05/sets/72157622517712210/

Alan