I got to try out a Pygmy Murrelet prototype yesterday at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. I liked the looks of it, seemed like it would be good for someone trying out a Greenlandesque kayak, with it's nice sweeping sheer. It has an eight panel hull that softens up the chines, which should give it better cruising efficiency. They had a version with a nice lowback deck, and it was narrow for a Pygmy at 22". There is supposed to be a completely flat decked version, this one had a slight peak aft of the recess. From the lines, I could tell it would be a strong tracker. I talked to John Lockwood, and he wasn't sure if it was the finished design. It should be easy to enter with a fairly long wide cockpit, and plenty of height at the foredeck. It looked like it would be easy to roll, both layback style and forward recovery. It has a good banana shape, to minimize upside down stability.

John walked it down to the beach for me to try in the afternoon. I was wearing street clothes, it didn't have any knee braces in it yet, and they didn't have spray skirts for demoing it, so I knew I wouldn't be able to do any extreme edging. I didn't have my Greenland Paddle either, so I had to use some Werner they had there. Primary stability was very good. I started to check the secondary, but I didn't want to push it in the middle of the festival, with such a low aft deck no spray skirt and no knee braces. It was very easily driven, and seemed to have a good cruising speed. This revision tracked straight as an arrow. Without strong edging it did not want to turn easily. Both forward and reverse sweep strokes were the order of the day. I think with more edging it would probably turn okay, but I just wasn't set up to fully try it out. There wasn't any wind down in the marina, so I can't comment on weathercocking other than, with that strong of tracking, it would take a strong wind to blow it off course, but it might get caught up in rear quartering waves, as strong tracking kayaks tend to do.

I talked with John afterwards about adding more rocker to the keel line, and he seemed open to my comments. He welcomed me back after the kayak was fully outfitted, to give it a real test, and write up a proper full review then. I'm busy for the next few weekends, so I'm not sure when I'll get to try it again. I'd really like to see how it responds to edging beyond the coaming. As it stands right now, it seems like a great kayak for someone who likes going from point to point, and wants to develop their Greenland rolling skills.