Chesapeake Light Craft helps people build boats. You’ve wandered into this site because you have an interest in building your own boat. If you've already built a boat, you'll know the joy of assembling bits of wood into that most functional and beautiful of all shapes---a kayak, a canoe, a pulling boat, a sailboat. Within these pages you'll find elegant shapes worthy of your craftsmanship.
If this is your first boatbuilding project, you'll find on this site a trove of boat designs conceived just for you, and more importantly, an organization devoted to helping builders of all skill levels. If you've never built a boat before in your life, Chesapeake Light Craft places at your disposal all of the resources to make it the experience of a lifetime: complete boat kits, comprehensive instructional materials, videos, scores of pages of helpful tips, and unlimited tech support.
If you're going to invest your time in a boatbuilding project, it had better be a great-looking boat. As you surf through the site, study the photos very carefully. Linger over the hull shapes and details. We don't think you'll find better designed, more shapely, or better-looking kit boats anywhere. Because wood-epoxy boats like ours have life spans measured in generations, we think the boat you build ought to be a work of sculpture.
Although a lot of our kayaks and smallcraft end up on display---in living rooms, boat shows, and museums---we really mean them to be used. Every single model on our website is the end product of years of refinement. The most discerning paddlers, rowers, and sailors in the world choose Chesapeake Light Craft designs because they're looking for handling qualities they can't find in mass-produced boats.
At Chesapeake Light Craft we've built a storehouse of knowledge particular to the amateur boatbuilder. How do you get epoxy to cure in a cold garage? How do you make varnish look like it was sprayed on if you don't own a fancy sprayer? How do you join lengths of 8-foot plywood to make a boat 16 feet long? An email, a phone call, or a browse through this website will turn up answers to any boatbuilding question you can think of.
Surf on for a tour of the best boats you can build. How can we help YOU build a boat?
John C. Harris
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