: I would like to build a kayak this winter and have settled on a stick and
: glue kit as the best bet for a strict beginner (both building and
: paddling). Any advice on the difference between these two company's kits
: in terms of ease of construction and eventual performance of the kayak. I
: can't seem to sort through the conflicting information on their web pages.
: Any advice from folks who have tried these kits is greatly appreciated.
: Thanks.

Jed,

My wife and I shortened a honeymoon hiking trip in mid-July of 1998 to purchase a Coho and an Osprey Standard kit. Due to the advertising claims (50-75 hours, no power tools needed, computer guided lasers, etc) we thought we might have them in the water by Labor Day. We had our first paddle today.

I estimate that we spent several hundred hours each before we turned them over to a Pygmy recommended boatbuilder. At that stage the Coho's hull was glued and glassed on the outside and the deck was glued. The Osprey's hull was glued but not glassed. It took the ex-Pygmy employee over 100 hours to complete the boats including the hatch kits. I challenge Pygmy to survey every customer within a one year time period to get a true average of how long it takes. It would also be interesting to hear how many of those customers actually finished with the year.

As far as power tools go, according to another ex-employee, one person completed a kit using only hand tools and that is how that claim can be made. While I cannot be sure that is true, it is not hard to believe since we spent dozens of hours using an orbital sander and I expect to spend many more since we still have to sand and varnish the boats. I noticed that in the most recent Coho instructions they at least mentioned that an electric palm sander works faster than sandpaper and a block.

When I first opened the Coho kit I noticed a set of damaged planks. It looked like the planks had been knocked into a piece of machinery or shelving because there was blue paint along the edges of the impact. I decided to live with it because I thought it was small enough to fill in with epoxy and woodflour when I was gluing seams. When I was laying out the panels to do the butt joints I noticed that the width of some the short stern planks was up to 3/32 greater than the width of the planks they were supposed to butt against. I brought some pieces into the factory and a comparison with the templates showed that they were cut incorrectly. The were decent enough to swap all my planks for a new set. Later in the process when I was wiring and gluing the panels together I could not get things to fit properly because the faces on the frames were a little bit wider than the panels themselves. I was so tired of calling Pygmy at that point that I simply distributed the error between all the seams by leaving little gaps between the panels. This worked fine but is not as attractive as I'd like it to be. The owner told me later that it would have been better to sand the frames down instead. I guess I just didn't expect to have to deal with it at all since everything was supposed to be precision cut down to .004 inches of accuracy.

Another problem that I had was when I tried to sand the butt seams prior to glassing the outside of the hull. I found it almost impossible to make them acceptably flat without sanding into the fiberglass tape and creating an ugly seam. I consulted with two Pygmy staffmembers who both told me I could sand the fiberglass tape completely off because it was mainly used for support during the stitching and glueing process. In fact, all the boats in the showroom have had the tape sanded off prior to glassing the hull. This seems to be less than truthful advertising because it makes the product look better than it will when the tape is left on. Later when I told the owner I had done this he thought it a bit strange and recommended that I reinforce the inside of the boat with more tape. Needless to say the whole business of the taped seams was frustrating. I will say that there is no flattening of the curve at the butt joints which I have seen several people mention as a potential problem. The curves are nice.

We did not have a good work space and are perfectionists. While not inept we are not adept at these types of projects. This all contributed to the number of hours it took, our disappointment in the instruction manual, and our lack of patience with less than perfect panels and frames, and our eventual abandonment of the project.

While we wished we had purchased kayaks instead of Pygmy kits, I would not necessarily advise you to forego a Pygmy but to be very skeptical of their advertising claims. It will take longer than 50-75 hours, you need power tools, you will have to decipher and interpret the sparse instructions, you should have a space you can work a little bit each night rather attempt to work all weekend on it, and you will need at least five times more brushes, acetone, gloves, sandpaper, rollers, etc than claimed. Luckily the customer service is good because you will most likely need to take advantage of it. I actually feel sorry for the employees because they have to live with the advertising claims but are probably not responsible for them. Good luck with whatever kit you choose.