I understand your disappointment with Pygmy understating the number of hours it takes to build a boat. But this won't make your decision any easier, because CLC has the same problem. Their manual says 50 hours for the Chesapeake 17 (not including Varnish and fitting out, and I spent about 100 to 150.

But to CLC's credit, two of the staff members I talked to before the purchase told me I could plan on more like 100+ hours before varnish. That turned out to be a fairly realistic estimate, and I would have been upset had those staff members not been honest about building times.

I took the Chesapeake 17 out for the first time yesterday in thunderstorms, and it was awesome. I am about 180lbs at 5'10" and that boat is more than enough size for me. I just got the bigger one because I like to camp and do carry quite a bit of gear with me.

Mike