Great Links & Great Thread Elliot!!! thank you.
And your project of building a wooden kayak is impressive. I have seen some of those & frankly I would be afraid to take it out. I am so rough on kayaks.. the sturdy ones get banged up. I do a lot of down river/rocks kayaking & I guess the wooden like you will make would be better on lakes/ocean use.
Take pix along the way
You'd be surprised how durable some kayaks are. There is a graphite & something-or-other compound that you can put on a hull, which make it very abrasion resistant.
I will get lots of pics when/if I go ahead and do this. I think it would be a pretty fun thing to do, rewarding too!