: Fair enough. I'm a beginner, truth be told. I might be biting off a
: lot, but I figure if I'm going to build it and keep it, it might
: as well be something that I'll be using for a while. I don't
: mind learning, and there's no lack of open water, closed water,
: rivers, etc to learn in.

: What do you have Bill, or have you used? And what can you tell me
: about the actual function of these boats, in addition to my
: original inquiry of my size vs the size of the kayak.

: Thanks, and please do be honest!

I've got one 19' boat and most of the time it's just way too long, real fun trying to take it off the roof racks in any kind of a wind, but it's SOF so it's very light (30 lbs). A stripper for the first boat that long could very easily end up 50-60 lbs and won't be any fun at all to transport. Light is better.

Why so long? There are really good reasons why the average sea kayak runs around 17' long, takes alot of experience to generate enough power to use any more length so most of the time it'll be much slower than a shorter boat.

Btw, I've got um...I think 8 kayaks now, have to count.

Bill H.