Well, I finally launched my Pygmy Goldeney-HI on Saturday here in Kingston, WA, after much delay. Thanks to everyone who gave encouragement a couple of months ago when I was preparing to launch, and discovered that my end pours hadn't worked: I had drilled through nothing, and created nice "drain holes" in the ends of my boat!

The boat is better than I had thought. I had expected it to be a bit "tubby" due to the 24" beam, but it doesn't feel that way. It's fast: my wife paddles a Looksha IV, and my previous boat was a Wilderness Systems Cape Horn; I used to have to struggle to keep up with her when she started really going -- now it's the opposite, even with my Greenland paddle. It was also more manueverable than I expected, given the reputation for the Osprey/GE tracking, and the Osprey that I test paddled (Pygmy's Osprey Std and the GE/GE-HI share the same hull underwater). Although, everytime I see my wife turn her Looksha by simply looking one direction or the other, I start fantasizing about my next boat, which is going to be an easy-turning Greenland-style, hard-chine boat.

The footroom is great for my size 13's. My legs went to sleep, but I think that's because I really need to do some cockpit outfitting.

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with the boat. Once I build my daytrip boat (the Greenland-style one mentioned earlier), this will remain a great, hi-volume, light weight boat for camping, longer trips, etc. For now, it's nice and light, fast, acceptably maneuverable, and fun.

Once we get photos developed, I'll post one. It was at the start of a roll, though, so it may be a bit ... ;-)

Regards,
Bill Graham