I have Chad's boat. I might add to this review that he's a heck of a guy and built a really good one. ;) Now for the Osprey. I've owned a Seda Tango and currently own two doubles surfskis, so I guess you could say I like tandems.
The Pygmy is a flat out beautiful boat-most outings garner people coming up, running their hands along its flanks (very equestrian-like), and admiring its mahogany beauty. It's quite comfortable - mounted two Perception one piece seats, and retained the stock back bands. I also mounted a Smart Track tandem rudder, and it has no difficulty turning this craft. the cockpits are very spacious; I'd like to see another bulkhead between the Captain and Stoker cockpits, but that would add to its very reasonable 60 lb. weight.
The Osprey tracks extremely well, and although beamy, carries a decent turn of speed. Both my surfskis and the Tango would blow it in the weeds if racing's your game, but for pleasure outings, it's a great boat to paddle. It handles beam waves exceedingly well-surfed it on 4 footers off the coast of Maine and regularly take it out on Long Island Sound in CT, hunting out big pleasure boat wakes. The bow could use a bit more volume-it tends to knife through a oncoming swell rather than riding up and over. Most is shed by the deck, but in bigger conditions, it can be a wet ride.
This boat handles extremely well. There's just enough distance between cockpits to avoid the occasional paddle clash if your partner paddles out of sync. the hatches are huge, with a somewhat cobbled looking closure system, but it seems to work, albeit looking like it was designed in a middle school shop class-smile. Maybe it just adds to the homebuilt feel of this boat.
That said, I love this Osprey double. When people ask me if I built it I reluctantly have to say no, and weakly add that I did the rudder and outfitting. I wish I could claim that I did the build; it's that handsome. It's our boat of choice for vacations as well. Buy one. Build one.
