: Anyone out there have a Pygmy Osprey-HP? I am looking at S&G kits and am
: interested in this boat in particular.
Tom-I've paddled an HP for nearly six years now; I was going to go with a CLC Patuxent but when I got the flier from Pygmy the lines of the HP instantly seduced me.
Here are my impressions about the boat - it's a more involving boat to build, relative to a hard chine design. I put more than 100 hrs. into it, but I took my time, as it was my first stab at boatbuilding. The manual was concise, the support from the folks at Pygmy was friendly and first rate, and I found the System 3 epoxy easy to use once I got used to its reaction time.
I paddled it for a year before adding hatches and bulkheads; should have put them in at the start. I've heard complaints abaout the Pygmy hatch design, but I've had no problem with them. The thermarest seat provided with the kit didn't get the job done; a carved foam seat made a world of difference in the comfort and handling of the boat.
As to the handling (for reference, I'm 5'9", 200 lb.)- it's very fast! I paddle mostly with younger people; the folks my age and older (I'm 51) I paddle with are in better shape than me. I use a Werner Little Dipper 250 cm. paddle (old blade style) and can keep up with them comfortably. With a larger blade, the speed increases noticeably. A paddler in good shape could make this boat go like a scalded dog.
It's a twitchy boat, but if you spend a lot of time in it and are reasonably coordinated the learning curve is surprisingly manageable. Once I got used to the boat, I found the twitchiness translated into a handling advantage in rough water; more than once a slight hip snap has gotten me out of what felt like a sure dumping.
It's great in the wind , with the exception of turning down wind, and tracks, as the cliche says, like it's on rails. The only consistent problem I've had is with wind and seas quartering from astern when paddling loaded, which make it turn into the wind slighty, what with all that vertical wood in the water. Paddling unloaded in the same conditions, this tendency is not felt as strongly.
A lighter paddler, I suspect, would not be troubled as much by this. My wife, who weighs 130 lb., found it to be acceptibly maneuverable when she first paddled it.
The original advertising for the HP stated that it performed "elegant leaned turns" (apologies to the Pygmies if I'm misquoting). This is a eupemism for "wide". I have to bury the shear and lean forward to get a good turn out of the beast, and find that a good assertive bow rudder goes a long way (hence the 250 cm. paddle). I believe, however, in the motto "you can learn to turn a fast boat, but no amount of learning can make a slow boat fast"; the only time this lack of maneuverability is really bothersome is on twisty little creeks, stuff like that.
It's not a great camping boat for someone my size; I go to Assateague Island several times a year, and must bring at least two and a half gallons of water to get through a weekend. This 20 lb. plus myself and gear cause the handling to fall off somewhat, though initial stability improves.
Then there's the aesthetic thing, which may or may not be a concern. One of the reasons it took so long to build was that once I got the deck on, I found the urge to sit back and just look at the boat irresistable. It is, quite simply , beautiful.
In short, I love it. I'll be building a stripper this winter to satisfy my requirements for a boat with more maneuverability and capacity, as well as to satisfy my growing boatbuilding jones, but I'm keeping the HP, it's just too good at what it was designed for and too pretty to give up. Hope this helps.-Greg