The contenders

I realised that mainstream sea kayaks that I had been dreaming of were out of my price range pretty quickly but here are a few of the ones I looked at:

• Mirage 580, the single version of a double I have spent a lot of time in, and really nice looking boats.
• Elliott Marauder & Reflection, but given the comfort issues I've had with my current one, plus a few build quality questions, I was in two minds on this manufacturer.
• Raider series by Roscoe Canoes in Brisbane, but given the distance from Canberra and similar prices I didn't look to much into these.

The average price of these kayaks was approx $3000 and I didn't have that much to spend so started looking for build-your-own kayak kits. While there was a mob in Wollongong, Cape Boat Works who do this kind of thing locally, I found that the majority of the companies making these kits were over in the States. In addition, there are two main companies who sell them in the US:

• Pygmy Boats, Inc., who designed the Coho my father built; and
• Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC), these guys seem to be the big distributor in this game and have an enormous array of designs shown on their website. I also saw one of their boats in the Hawkesbury Classic last year and had a bit of a chat with the fella on the way down the river in the wee hours, it was a nice looking rig.

Some have asked me if I'm apprehensive about biting off more than I can chew in building a boat from scratch, given my woodworking skills are pretty non-existent. I am, but the reassurance from the old man, plus more of the same from Pygmy saying that their boats have been built in living rooms, garages and apartments by people who have never attempted anything like this before, with stunning results. Also, given the whinge-fest that is the Internet, you'd think that if someone managed to bollocks one of these up they'd be on there complaining and giving negative reviews, but I haven't found it yet which has to say something.

I was initially drawn to CLC boats like a textbook Gen-Y moth to a flame as their website has an enormous amount of information on each design, and dial-like comparisons at the bottom of each design page showing how fast/slow, stable/tippy etc each design is. While the website of CLC was better, I got past this and the impression from the research I did was that Pygmy were in fact the market leader. I sent some emails which were responded to very quickly and with some excellent guidance on particular models to suit my size (I'm 6'4'' and 95kgs with size 12 feet), shipping quotes, and whether they could structure the shipments to stay under AUD$1000 to avoid having to pay GST and duty (they could, but the extra postage wouldn't make it worthwhile).

The Pygmy model I was initially looking at was the Osprey HP, as I liked the lines of the hull and deck better, and, let's not beat around the bush - it has a higher top speed! A few emails suggested I wouldn't fit comfortably with my legs, and couldn't amend the plans during construction to shift the bulkhead at my feet forward a few inches to allow extra footroom.
Next choice was the Coho. My Dad's model is a Coho (Standard) and this is what he paddles when training for the Hawkesbury, and what I used in 2009 for the event. Good news was that they also offer the Coho in a High Volume model, perfect! This has the same hull shape, but a deck raised an extra 1.5 inches of deck height for heffalumps like me. Word from Jim and Kelly at Pygmy also is that the difference between the Coho and Osprey HP is academic at best, and the Pygmy actually has a higher cruising speed, hence the Standard Coho being their highest selling model.

SOLD! I order the coho in the next few days once I sort out what accessories I need/want. This is getting really exciting.