: Anyone can share their experiences with building either of these
: kayaks? I am wondering about their complexities in terms of
: building and paddling characteristics. I would really like to
: build from plans but as far as I can tell Pygmy does not sell
: them for the Pinguino. I am very much a "cautious older
: recreational" paddler!

I built a Wood Duck 12 Hybrid with my daughter last summer. The build was fast and fairly simple. There are indeed some high-pressure joins in the hull, but wetting the ply made them flexible enough. I bought a partial kit--just the hull panels and stripping forms. We milled our own deck strips and did a veneer coaming ala the strippers I've built. The hatch is in the rear bulkhead: simple and effective. Joe Greenley-clone seat. The boat is a lot of fun: very stable, yet surprisingly fast and straight tracking for its type. The big cockpit admits dogs, kids, fishing gear, what have you. In contrast, the Pinguino is much more "real kayak" than the WD, I believe. I've never seen one, but I paddled with John Lockwood last Halloween; he talked the boat up quite a bit, and noted that some fairly hot paddlers up his way have been having fun surfing the Pinguino--which w/b outside the WD envelope for most. I'm pretty sure John will never sell plans. That's just not his business model.

--Scott