Pygmy Boats Inc
Pygmy Boats Inc. of Port Townsend, Washington is the largest and oldest manufacturer of precision precut wood kayak kits in North America. Started in 1986 by boat designer and software engineer, John Lockwood, Pygmy Boats produced North America’s first computer designed sea kayaks. In 23 years we have expanded our line to include 17 sea kayak models, their rowing skiff, the Wineglass Wherry, and their canoe the Taiga. Whether a paddler is 8 or 80, novice or advanced in technique, they have a craft to suit your needs. In 1970, Pygmy Designer, John Lockwood, took his first extended solo kayak trip–900 miles down the Yukon River. Fleeing the stuffy halls of Harvard, he loaded a collapsible Klepper on the Trans Canadian railroad and headed for Whitehorse in the Yukon.
In 1971 John found the lush Queen Charlotte Islands lying 90 miles off the coast of British Columbia in deep rain forest. Here he built his first stitch-n-glue kayak–an early version of our Queen Charlotte. He wanted a light, rugged kayak which he could pull up beaches, hopping on his good leg. Paddling 4 months out of the year, he ate from the sea’s bounty of mussels, clams, oysters, octopus, salmon, star fish eggs, 7 kinds of rock fish, whelks, etc. A home sown teepee and a string of poles set up along the coastline gave him shelter as he explored the remains of Haida long houses, totem poles, innumerable islands, bays, and streams pouring from steep mountains cloaked in ancient cedar and fir forest. Two and one half years passed quickly. John returned to the U.S. to replenish his funds as a computer software engineer.
For more information, please visit http://www.pygmyboats.com