I have been giving serious consideration to a really fast boat, got lotsa friends who are in surfskis and K-1's. I'm not entering races, but I habitually paddle as though I am. Lately I've been looking at long skinny boats like the Pax 20 and Mystery, and have been caught inspecting the wooden surfski thread. I'm not thrilled with skis because I cherish the versatility of a sea kayak -- namely, I can stop and fish out of it if I want. Main requirements are that whatever I get into had better be able to handle lumpy water, cuzz that's what we gots around here, and I'm as hopeless a rolling freak as ever.

Meanwhile .......... I set out on a search for a set of Bobby Curtis Sea Spirit plans a couple years ago, and scored. The new friend I gained sent me his old set, but with emphatic urgings that I build a biadarka instead, as that is what he did and now his whole tribe is going that way because it does everything the Sea Spirit did only better. You can bet I'll soon be writing him again, but I believe it was Rob Mack's Shooting Star he was talking about.

Which sounds especially enticing since I'd much rather have a boat with 700 to 7000 years of tradition, if not outright R&D, behind it. So curse you, now I have to get all excited about a freakin' baidarka. I've been resisting this since 2004, so thanks a lot pal. Grumble, grumble. Sheesh, next thing you know I'll have to carve one of those weird Aleut paddle things, phooey!

Etienne is as big a stinker as you, by the way. That build log of his is doing me in. I'd hate him for it, except he calls Rob Macks a "cunning bastard". Hard to stay mad at a guy who makes you giggly.