Hi everybody! I've been reading this board for a couple of months now and I thought It was about time That I passed on a couple of thoughts. Last fall I built a Pygmy osprey standard for my wife Jenny,I bought the full kit from Pygmy including the hatch and bulkhead kit as well as the deck rigging kit. the total cost was about $720.00. I could of saved about $180.00 if I had spent the time to find the glass and epoxy locally and built the hatches and bulkheads from scratch. It took about 5 months and the result is awesome! The second one is for me and it is about half way done. The kayak paddles like it is on rails and turns well, I've had it out in the ocean as well as large lakes with 2-4 foot swells. So far it does'nt seem to plunge through the swells,it mostly goes over the top! I have not had any of the problems in construction that I've read about on this board,That speaks well for Pygmy!Any questions,E-mail me! p.s. My 75 lb. huskey dosent like the small cockpit!And I agree!