Pt. Hope Kayak

Not too long ago, I finished a Pt. Hope kayak. Above is a picture of the frame, finished except for a coat of red paint and a cockpit coaming. Below is a picture of the boat floating empty. For those of you not up to date on Alaskan geography, Pt. Hope is on the Arctic Ocean, north and east of the Bering Strait that separates Siberia from Alaska and about 300 miles southwest of Pt. Barrow, Alaska's nothernmost settlement. Check it out on Google or one of those other map programs.

It's a short boat, 13 feet long and it has a lot of rocker. As you can see, the first and the last two feet of the boat don't even touch water when the boat is empty. When the boat has me in it, that's a different story.
Short performance summary: This boat has no directional stability. It paddles straight as long as you paddle. Once you stop though, it wants to turn to one side or the other. When the boat is empty, you can push on either end and it rotates on its own axis. The same goes for when you're in the boat. You sweep your paddle and the boat spins on its axis. Turning radius: 7 ft. I imagined this to be a good bay boat for short choppy conditions, one to two foot waves. Those will be coming along soon. I'll report back after I've paddled some of those.