Guillemot

[edit] Reviews of homebuilt Guillemot and other Nick Schade kayaks:

[edit] Great Auk

The great auk is designed to be a first strip built boat for a builder. I built mine in the summer of 2002 directly from Nick's book. I built it from the table of offsets in the book, transfered directly to taped together pieces of graph paper. I used the book extensively and found it thorough and helpful. I had never built another boat, but finished after some 80 hours in the project with an excellent and stable kayak. Cost of materials was about $400.

The Great Auk has a big cockpit and large coaming. I found that the same recreational spray skirts that fit the Old Town Otter and Perception Carolina fit the Auk just fine. There is enough room to sit in the seat and bend my knees to bring my feet in the boat and straighten them down to place my feet on the pegs. That is saying something as I am 6 feet tall.

It has made a great fishing boat, with lots of stability and lots of room. If I made one change to the design it would have been to have a rounded front deck instead of the peaked deck. There is not enough reduction in the complexity of building to put up with the peak in my opinion. It does detract from the looks of the otherwise sleek boat.

[edit] Guillemot

http://www.geocities.com/shawnkayak/guillemot

[edit] Guillemot Expedition