The Black Pearl kayak

Alright, about the Black Pearl. It's a kayak designed by Björn Thomasson and has been built by hundreds of DIY enthusiasts all over the world. It is exactly what I was looking for in kayak. In the words of Björn:Black Pearl is a long, low and narrow kayak of east Greenland ancestry – extremely easily handled, instantly reacting to shift of weight, leaning etc, and with enough secondary stability to support leaned turns, balance brace and such. It is very easily rolled. The initial stability is low but with the reassuring secondary stability it is not out of reach even for a novice (at least one with some patience and perseverance). Wetted surface and friction is very small, which together with low weight gives a splendid acceleration – a couple of strokes to top speed. In spite of the maneuverability Black Pearl has a good directional stability and is not noticeably affected by wind. Room for gear is minimal – it takes more than a little ingenuity for extended touring in Black Pearl.

Now upon deciding I wanted to build this kayak I had been paddling for just a year. Rather impulsive, I know, but I had paddled lots different kinds of kinds of kayak at my club, Kano Vereniging Zeeburg. And ate the internet up on considerations when choosing to buy/build a kayak, hydrodynamics and building techniques.
At first I leaned more towards a skin-on-frame type of build but was eventually deterred by the relatively short life expectancy of the skin. You're looking at changing skins every five years with good use. In the end a strip built kayak will outperform and outlive a skin on frame design.

So there we are, it's well over a year now that I've purchased Björns plans and haven't been able to put very much work in but made some progress none the less. More on that later.