David , I built a coho last fall with a friend and paddled it a little. I think you couldn't go wrong with it. It's more maneuverable than the standard pygmy. No idea about the arctic tern though. I've come to the conclusion that I am not able to extrapotate handling characteristics from dimensional data. Now this is a gross generalization from my limited experience of a few hard chine boats and a few dozen other designs, that one can have a boat that is more predictable,or less twitchy?,when not confined to a hull shape that is a variation of cone sections and simple curved planes. that said, I've had a great time paddling a clc 16 in the surf,etc.