Hi Gini -
Well, here's a couple of thoughts. Last fall I was thinking of doing the exact same thing. Here's what I discovered and ended up doing...

~ Pygmy will sell you an Osprey Standard kit without the decks panels.

~ If you can get some time with a complete Osprey Standard, you could make cardboard templates of the deck, every 12" then use them to create temporary stations from chipboard, plywood, etc. for stripping a deck. This would also give you the chance to design your own cockpit opening. However, after tripling your estimated build time (including designing your own stations), you'd have a very lovely deck on a rounded-chine S& G hull. That's it. So, do you want to spend all that time for appearances? It's perfectly OK to do that, as long as you're clear that you'll invest all of the time stripping the deck with no real performance gain. Those hybrid Mergansers, on the other hand, have Greenland-style hulls, and I'll bet they perform very close to their strip-built cousins due to their hard-chine design. So, it makes more sense to me to strip a Greenland S&G deck. Remember, the Osprey is round-chined.

~ I decided NOT to go that route because, if I was going to spend all that time stripping, I wanted not just the looks but the benefits of strip building.

~ A strip-built hull gives you the benefit of a complex rounded-chine hull design. For example, the Storm www.kozelguitars.com/storm/frameset.htm I strip-built last fall is round-chined from the cockpit forward and hard-chined from the cockpit aft. It's handling and performance is stunning. A round-chined paneled boat may come close but it's design is limited by the 6 or 8 panels used to make the hull.

~So, instead of the Osprey Standard, I ended up strip-building the Caspian Sea by John Winters, a proven contemporary design reminiscent of the Osprey Standard. It's a delightful boat and I'd include it in the lineup with the Georgian Bay or the Spring Run. I had three months to build the boat, however. I REALLY like the Osprey Standard and will probably build the kit at some point.

~ Pygmy, CLC and all the other designers have spent the time and research creating boats that really work well. So, I'd vote to order the complete Osprey standard kit, build it in 50-60 hours and reserve all that extra time for building your first stripper.

Sorry if I ran on a bit...need to get another cup of coffee to get all my cylinders firing.