When I was first looking at kayaks, I was in a similar position. But a s&g from pygmy is a pretty straight-forward build, and costs little more than the price for the full kit. For a strip built, there are some extra costs with tool additions. There is also the learning curve, which is much easier with a Pygmy if you have never built a boat. Another major factor is time for construction. I build a Pygmy in about 100 hours, and I know I would have taken much more time with a strip built.

Since I was starting without a boat, choosing a Pygmy was the fastest way to get into a completed boat. Now that I have a boat, I can work on a stripper during the evenings of those nice weekends after I go for a paddle!

Either way you can't go wrong. Nick's boat is very through, and is a highly recommended purchase, and Pygmy is similarly very good with instructions and answering questions...

Best of Luck!

Brian

: I am looking at building a kayak and have narrowed to these. How do they
: compare, in the opinion of somebody who doesn't work for Guillemot or
: Pygmy? Am I missing good options? I have no woodworking experience, so I
: am only looking at kits.