Hi Lia, just a thought on light weight.

If you build a single chined boat, and only tape the joins, and, in addition, use 3mm ply, you can end up with a very light boat.

http://http://cnckayaks.com have had great success with this.

Multi chined boats like the coho have so many joins that you may as well just glass cloth the entire hull. The tern Has the extra chines on the deck and requires more cloth too and it is easier to glass the lot. These are nice boats, but are not ultra light.

Something like the sheerwater, (http://CLCboats.com), or the Shrike, with a rounded deck and single chined hull requires only taping at a few seams, and if you just epoxy seal the ply and varnish the rest of the ply you can get a very light-weight result.

If weight reduction is a major consideration there are some nice designs that lend themselves to this. They may be worth looking at in more detail. I wouldn't limit my search to Pygmy.

The Shrikes may be a bit specialised for your needs, but something like the sheerwater may suit very well.

Et