Owner and CEO John C. Harris manufactured some of the very first CLC kits in 1994. Long before that, he had a fascination with small boats and boatbuilding. He designed and built his first boat, a rowing shell, at age 14.
As a boatbuilder and designer, Harris’s work has been featured in virtually every English-language paddling, sailing, and small boat magazine you can think of, including WoodenBoat, Yachting World, Popular Mechanics, Sea Kayaker, Canoe and Kayak, Paddler, Soundings, Sailing, Cruising World, Classic Boat, Watercraft, and scores more. Harris’s portfolio includes almost every wooden format, including strip-planking, cold-molding, carvel, lapstrake, and of course stitch-and-glue. He has taught at the esteemed WoodenBoat School in Maine since 1999, and has led more than 50 boatbuilding classes and workshops over the years.
As a business owner, Harris has been featured in the Washington Post, Forbes FYI, the Washington Business Journal, Corridor Magazine, Chesapeake Bay Magazine, the Baltimore Business Journal, the Baltimore Sun, and others.
In 2001, Harris wrote, co-produced, and starred in a series of television shows about boatbuilding for the DIY Network, which ran for several years. Also that year, he wrote and produced a one-hour boatbuilding video for CLC, which has received rave reviews and sold thousands of copies.
Harris’s boat design work ranges widely, from dinghies to a 28-foot power catamaran used for surf tours in Nicaragua. His CLC designs include the Chesapeake 14, Eastport Pram, Pax 18, Pax 20, Sport Tandem, Skerry, Chester Yawl, West River 18, John’s Sharpie, Passagemaker Dinghy, CLC SailRig MKII, Peace Canoe, San O’ paddleboards, Pacific Proa, Kaholo, and PocketShip.
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