Dealing with Waters Dancing was a pleasure. The materials supplied in the kit were excellent. I was always able to talk to Don, Mr. Waters Dancing, on the phone when something wasn't clear and he was invariably pleasant, helpful and free with his time.
If this is your first boat, however, be warned. Your build time will be longer than the 90 hours stated. Figure on twice that when making a decision to buy.
The kit includes disposable supplies like mixing cups, gloves, brushes, etc. but only enough to provide a start. Construction will be speeded if you lay in extra before the kit arrives. Buy a dozen acid brushes, a dozen assorted foam brushes, a box of vinyl gloves, a package of craft store "tongue depressors" and, months ahead, wash and save all your cottage cheese and similar containers for mixing epoxy.
The kit provides enough glass cloth to cover the outer hull in one piece and the inner in two (if cut carefully) but instructions call for piecing cloth in places like the cockpit comings. Do yourself a big favor and order 1 or 2 extra yards of 6 oz cloth. And while you're at it, order 3 or 4 more syringes and some extra wood flour (I ran out). I'm sure Waters Dancing would be happy to add this to your boat order for a reasonable price. These can also be ordered from Pygmy, on-line, at their web site.
Buy a random orbit sander! I bought an inexpensive Ryobi from Home Depot and it served well. This and a cordless drill are the only power tools you'll need and are nearly indispensible. If you can find them, the 3M purple "Sandblaster" sanding discs were far superior to the standard hardware store discs in sanding epoxy.
All puzzle joints fit perfectly except one. I wiped white glue with my finger on the end grain of each matching piece which raised the grain enough for a perfect fit.
The instructions call for plugging all the stitching holes with an epoxy wood flour mix. After reading a kayak forum I plugged all the holes with round toothpicks, cut & sanded flush. HOWEVER, the few that I missed look exactly like the the ones I plugged and the few that were filled with wood flour/epoxy putty. If building another I wouldn't bother filling the stitching holes.
