i'm looking for help, has anyone ever seen or heard of plans for building a kayak like this out of cedar strips? http://www.nativewatercraft.com/boat.cfm?id=53
essentially looking to build a short/wide canoe with a partially closed deck very similar to this native kayak.

That looks to have many of the elements of a sit on top as they mention drain holes and foot wells. If you do some searching you can find quite a few people who have built wood strip surf skis, which are a fast sit on top. If I remember right the build starts similar to a kayak with separate deck and hull sections and a big cutout for the "cockpit" (seat/foot well), which is made separately from strips or composites (fiberglass/carbon) and then fiberglassed into place. I've never done one but it doesn't look like it's for the faint of heart.

If you're not set on it being a sit on top design it should be a lot easier to come up with something workable.

Alan

that is the idea, I use a true sit on top kayak now and love the open feel. I'm a bigger guy so I don't like the enclosed feel of a sit inside kayak and a canoe is a little too open and high center of gravity. looking for that in between feeling and boat. maybe I'm looking for a 12-13' canoe with a 30" width kind of design for stability.

Just saying........ The canoe in your link looks very much like the decked "wee canoes" of old. There are plenty of designs for building with cedar strip or building lapstrake. You could use these basic hull designs as a base and add "bells and whistles" to copy that "high tech native".

Refer to Wooden canoe heritage association for some history:
WCHA

Like the:
"Wee Lassie"......... design by J.H. Rushton
"Wee Robbie"........ design by Rob Macks
"Rob Roy"....... design by J. MacGregor

Go to John Michne's canoe building page to see his approach to building the Wee Lassie II:
Michne's Wee Lassie

Also check out Newfoundland Woodworks for both the Wee Lassie and Wee Lassie II designs plus cedar strip kayak hulls:
Newfoundland Woodworks

Chesapeake Light Craft is another source for ideas and plans. They have a small canoe called the Sassafras that looks very much like a Rushton or MacGregor design:
CLC boats

When you study these hulls you will find that they look very much like the canoe shown in your link. Build them with or without decks...... add a water tight bulkhead..... Good luck

Perhaps a pack canoe would suit you.

Primer

Strip version

You can always lower the seat on a regular canoe as well for more stability. All else being equal a longer boat should be more stable than a shorter one so you might have better luck moving up to something around 14', like a Wenonah Vagabond.

Alan

great links, thank you both