I met a neighbor last night while out walking (about 6 blocks away) and found out that he is wanting to build a kayak. I told him, "I had built two, a Pygmy Artic Tern and a Putz Walrus."

He has a friend who has a Dyson Baidarka, and was letting him try it out. It was in his back yard. It was a nice kayak, aluminum frame and nylon skin coated with hypalon. We both had today off so we went paddling this morning for about an hour and a half. I got to paddle the Baidarka. It was a nice boat. It tracks well and turns very easily. It was quite stable after I got in, it has a small cockpit opening. It was very large inside, beamy, and quite heavy. It seemed to have good speed once you got up to it. It was slow to accelerate. It had a lever style hand pump mounted on the deck. It is quite seaworthy, it has made the trip down from Sitka Alaska to Bellingham Washington.

The guy is looking at building a Greenland style skin kayak from "Sea Kayaker" plans, a double bladed skin canoe weighing in @ 22 lbs., or a Putz. He got to try out my Pygmy and liked it a lot, but it was too pricy, he wants to keep it under $300. He likes skin boats. He doesn't have a computer at home but he will be checking out the BBS at the library.

Mike