The new Chesapeake Light Craft Annapolis Wherry kit arrived! I picked it up at the 2024 Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend , WA, USA. They brought it over on their truck. Got it home and started the unpacking process. CLC does a very nice job packing their kits. LOADS of clear tape holds everything in place. You get two boxes: A small one with the epoxy and some fillers in it, and then the large flat pack with the wood, the fiberglass, and the manuals in it.  They use MAS Epoxy . I'm more used to System Three and WEST System epoxies, and wish that CLC gave an option to use them, but MAS has worked out fine for the two builds I've done with CLC boats. It took about 45 minutes to gently untape and sort through the flat pack. You don't want to break anything, and you really want to store the stuff in your shop/garage where it's out of the way but easy to access.  Then it was time to set up the workbench for the first part of the build. I use two sawhorses that have ...

I'm back, and I'm building the Chesapeake Light Craft Expedition Wherry !  I'm still sad that Pygmy Boats has gone away, but this boat from CLC isn't a kayak anyway. It's a beautiful rowing wherry with protected storage and enough stability (they say!) that I can use it in a kayakishy way.  Pictures from the CLC webite (copyright CLC):   The kit was delivered yesterday and today I have epoxied the first panels together.  CLC uses a great "puzzle" joint to align and strengthen the panels. For those of you new to stitch and glue kits, they are generally cut from 4' x 8' plywood panels, so the longest piece they can make is 8'. Therefore, to get panels to the full length of the boat, they make you butt joint pieces together. Pygmy did it with flat butt joints that required you to put fiberglass tape over each side of the joint. CLC does it better with the puzzle joints. They do not require any taping. Nice. Plus, they look sorta cool... at least ...