The Parr is an excellent choice for wood strip construction.
My daughter was paddling her own kayak @ 6 without sponsons. She could have done it much earlier with them for safety. We built a Sea Flea of WWW.YOSTWERKS.com fame. 62$ for the vinyl skin, 24$ for the glue, 15$ in notions, 20$ in the stringers and scrap plywood for the forms makes for a pretty low price and an excellently designed and superb handling (from what I can observe) boat. She can outrun me going up river or down my to Mom's horror! Tip them in the pool so they feel confident on how to get out and then you'll get a workout trying to follow 'em on the water.

: The building bug seems to have bitten! Having completed several
: river trips of up to 10miles in my 15ft 6" Guillemot, I am
: now well into building the 17ft version as Nick designed it with
: the hull now half stripped out. I'm delighted with the handling
: and performance of the short version and now look foreward to
: making a direct comparison before my son(s) grab one of them!
: I'm also looking a little to the future, as I have a grandson
: and quite like the idea of building Joe Greenley's Parr for him.
: He's only two at the moment. Can anyone suggest what age he
: might fit the boat, is there any other design I should be
: looking at for him?

This photo has my 7 y/o son in the boat.
: Les Cheeseman.