Hi all,

This my first post on this forum, and I’m hoping to get some advice from some of you more experienced boat builders and paddlers out there. A friend of mine took me kayaking and got me hooked. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that a quality sea kayak greatly exceeds my budget. You can imagine how happy I was to find that I could build a great boat for less than 1/3 the price of a ready-made one. I’ve been looking at the CLC Chesapeake LT17, CLC West River180, or the Pygmy Osprey Standard. Of these, which do you think would be most suited for a beginner both in ease of building and handling of the kayak? I really like the idea that the Osprey is supposed to be an extremely fast and stable boat yet is under 16’ long (I will be transporting it with a Geo Metro). Conversely, the CLC kayaks come standard with bulkheads and hatches, appear to have much nicer cockpits and are cheaper. Am I missing something, or does it look like CLC is the better value in a kayak? Your advice is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ken