: I'm looking at building my first kayak and I'm glad to find this site. Any
: advice you've got, I'm happy to take.

: Two questions: I had just about settled on a Pygmy kit (the Osprey Standard;
: I'm drawn to the kits because I have no confidence in my ability to build
: straight from plans the first time out) when I had a conversation last
: night with a friend who built two kayaks from Glen-L plans. His Glen-Ls
: are 17 feet, and his first comment to me was that the shorter boat would
: be better for the kind of use he's gotten and I'm anticipating (Northern
: California/SF Bay and surrounding day trips; I'd describe myself as
: comfortable in a boat, advanced beginner wise). That I didn't need as much
: boat as he had and as I might be building. The Osprey's 15'8"...and
: now I'm wondering again about the Arctic Tern, which is even shorter at
: 14. So this is a length question and a hard v. multi chine question: does
: anyone have any specific insight in the tradeoffs between these?

: Second question: why use copper wire or zip ties? Copper's provided in the
: kit, and seems like it's fine to work with...but I've been zip ties touted
: far and wide on the web. Any odd pitfalls in copper?

: Thanks.
If you are not going to be paddling with a group of strong paddlers with long boats the Artic Tern 14 will be a boat you can advance your skills in and have fun on day paddles. It tracks very good and is very maneuverable on a leaned turn. I was pleased that I was able to learn a skulling brace and balance brace in my Tern 14. The Osprey is an inch wider than the Tern 14. It might make some Skills harder to learn. The Tern 14 has a low foredeck which makes it comfortable to paddle. The only other Pygmy that I have paddled is the Coho. It has a lot more cockpit room than I need and sits higher above the water. I am 6' 160 lbs. with size 9 shoes. The Tern 14 fits me like a comfortable glove. I feel like I'm paddling a sports car and not a tank.
The copper wire will give you smaller holes in your boat that might look better than the bigger holes a zip tie might need. I saw a stich and glue boat built by Mark Rogers that didn't use stiching. He used duck tape and the boat looks great without the stiching holes. Hope this helps a little. Good luck.