Hi, hopefully this isn't a question that has been asked before, as I have searched and couldn't find anything.

I am interested in building a double kayak for my wife and myself to paddle together. My goal is for us to be able to travel on excursions potentially up to 2 weeks, but more frequently 1 week trips or day paddles. Our combined weight is about 300 lbs.

Looking at the statistics for the Chesapeake Double, Chesapeake Sport Tandem, and Shearwater Double, the Shearwater's capacities seem to match our needs the best. The Sport Tandem is certainly insufficient, and the I don't think we would ever even come close to the Chesapeake Double's max payload.

My problem is that I don't really like the way the Shearwater looks (among other things), and that brings me to the question: How hard would it be to modify the standard Chesapeake Double to be an "LT" variant? It appears to me from the photos that the LTs are different from their standard counterparts in two ways. The radius of the aft deck is larger, and the sides are shorter.

So could I theoretically order a Chesapeake Double kit, and then trim down the side height a little, and increase the radius of the rear deck, thus creating a "Double LT" with a payload more in the 575-600lb range?

I'm not a stranger to working with my hands, but this would be my first boat so while I would really like to try this, I'm afraid of spending a hundred hours and a lot of money creating a boat based only on guesswork.

Thanks for your input.