ok,ok I know I'm at this screen too much,,

Don't you love these equivocal answers? Once again, assuming you are choosing amongst boats that fit you. I think there are enough variations in something as simple as a four-panel boat that one kind of HC might be different enough than another HC to make the choice other than HC/MC. I have paddled a patuxent and Arctic Hawk in bouncy water and thought there were twitchy handling characteristic I did not like, i have since made a North Bay, clc 16 and paddled a Caribou(?,or the original 4 panel design) which are very different boats and like them all,as they did not have that twitchy feeling, sounds subjective as all hell as the north bay is 20"wide and the caribou and clc around 23",

My totally uninformed opinion (as I have not paddled a Arctic Tern but have made other pygmys and talked to folks) is that the Tern would be a good boat if you are in that 175# + range. If you are smaller than that then the LVclc 16 is the only lower volume boat kit boat that i know of other than the Pygmy 13. I think the tern has more dynamic stability and the clc more initial stability, but once again if you are <150lbs and not snug into the Tern that dynamic stability will be largely unusable. I'm starting to go in circles.....get a couple boxes of gloves, little paper cups and plastic margarine cups for mixing epoxy, think of where the lunch box and binoculars would go, the big picture.

another thought, someone mentioned deck strength,,,, the clc back deck sits on a bulkhead,then has a reinforcing beam of plywood at the hatch. Left as it is the deck is not strong enough for a 175#person to sit between the hatch and the bulkhead. No problem, put an exra strip of 4mm plywood on that beam, glass under the deck at that area, maybe add 6oz. doesn't matter. Go ahead and glass the deck with 4oz cloth. The whole shear clamp,butt seam deck issue is inconsequential, get the one that you like the looks of. There are enough variations in how folks make their boats that comparative arguments of strength don't really apply. A deck that has glass on both sides is stronger than one that doesn't have glass, All these boats seem to last longer than the muscles of their makers.