2022's Top Ten Boatbuilding Moments

Another great year for boatbuilding at Chesapeake Light Craft, and in boat shops, garages, basements, carports, and improvised shops all over the world. As Chesapeake Bay starts to ice over, our shop is crowded with prototypes of all shapes and sizes, custom projects, and demo boats being refinished for the 2023 season. With the new year upon us, and in no special order, we reflect on 2022's highlights at Chesapeake Light Craft, and in the world of people who build stuff.

The 800th Teardrop Camper

Fitting, perhaps, that the first entry is not a boat at all, though it was inspired by boats and designed by boatbuilders. We shipped Teardrop Camper number 800 back in September, to a builder in Yellow Springs, Ohio. (We assume #800 is still under construction. The one in the photo belongs to a builder in Oregon.)

Interest remains energetic in CLC's sleek, sculptural Teardrop Camper, the ultimate small-footprint "escape pod." They are being built all over the world, and number 850 will ship shortly.

The PT 11 Nesting Dinghy

The PT 11 is celebrated in yachting circles as the most refined and sophisticated "nesting dinghy" to be found—whether you build it yourself in your garage or buy a completed version. (They are rarely for sale). In 2021, the designers and builders at PT Watercraft handed off kit production to CLC, where sales of the PT 11 kit continue apace.

The PT 11 does all of the things that a great 11-foot nesting dinghy should do, including the capability of being assembled on the water. It's also a champion rowing and sailing boat. This level of refinement doesn't come cheap, but builders and users find that the PT 11 is worth a great big bag of worthy things.

Here's a recent independent review and report, including an interview with designer Russell Brown.

Getting Kids into Woodworking with Maplewoodshop

This summer we had the opportunity to support an amazing company, Maplewoodshop. Located in New Jersey, Maplewoodshop is a young and energetic outfit helping schools and camps teach children woodworking, with the goal of creating a future community of woodworkers, builders and creators.

One essential component of Maplewoodshop's programs is the literal basis for woodworking: a workbench. This summer we built 700 of them, and you'll find them in school shop programs across the country.

Getting Kids into Sailing with the Lake Union Swift

The Center for Wooden Boats chose the Lake Union Swift design for a fleet of sail-trainers at their Lake Union site in Seattle. The boats were built at CWB's boatshop over the course of several summers by youth interns from local high schools. The boats are now used by middle and high school students for sailing lessons.

Custom Boatbuilding

It was an unusually busy year at CLC for custom boatbuilding and other cool fabrication projects. Lead CLC boatbuilder Andrew Schroerer and colleagues built a lightly modified version of the Sam Devlin-designed Candlefish 16 (photo, left), three CLC Teardrops, a Rhode Runner, an Oxford Shell, and a long scroll of boat completion and refinishing work.

CLC "Rhode Runner" Runabout

We started shipping kits for the Rhode Runner Runabout late in 2021, and we've already shipped 30 of them. As a "ProKit" it's a boat for someone who's assembled a stitch-and-glue design or two already. But it's a straightforward, tight-fitting kit, thanks to several years of patient refinement by CLC designers Dillon Majoros and Jay Hockenberry.

The Rhode Runner is named after the nearby Rhode River, scene of innumerable CLC adventures, in boats of every description. With a hull weight of less than 400 pounds (sans engine), performance is zippy. But her looks are all class.

Big Little Boat Festival 2022

In May, not far from CLC HQ in Annapolis, the Big Little Boat Festival (formerly known as "OkoumeFest") returned as a busy, immersive three-day celebration of small wooden boats and the people who love them. It was Big, there were many Little Boats, and we Festival'ed this thing like a rock band. Read the full report here.

The next Big Little Boat Festival will be on Saturday, May 13th, 2023.

Build-Your-Own Boat Classes Returned, and Did They Ever

People were ready to get out of the house and go somewhere. And for many, the destination was a boatbuilding shop. 173 CLC designs (including Teardrop Campers, honorary boats) were built in 33 one- or two-week classes here in Annapolis, at the WoodenBoat School in Maine, out west at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, and in California at the Spaulding Marine Center.

So far we have almost three-dozen classes on the calendar for 2023. More of them will be posted soon. Recall that the WoodenBoat School (who handles boatbuilding classes in Maine and most of the classes at CLC in Annapolis) begins taking registrations on January 2nd.

On the Road Again: The Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend

 

After tentative, cautiously-masked forays in 2021, something resembling a travel schedule resumed in 2022. In September, CLC's traveling circus boat show rig got as far as Port Townsend, Washington for the WoodenBoat Festival. Seeing old friends on the left coast helped restore a measure of sanity normality, and it was one of the most energetic and interesting wooden boat shows we've seen anywhere. We hope to see you at all of the usual shows and venues in 2023!

Springtime for "Autumn Leaves"

Designer (and CLC boss) John Harris was thrilled to see two faithful renditions of his Autumn Leaves design cruising in company in the spring and summer of 2022.

Even better, one was rigged as jib-headed yawl, and the other with a balanced lug sail on the mainmast. Each have their particular virtues, but it was fascinating to find them almost perfectly matched under sail.

Builder David Dawson has published several entertaining articles about Autumn Leaves, including two in WoodenBoat Magazine's Small Boats Monthly. Here's one that includes his first impressions of the design. Here's another about a joint cruise (with Autumn Leaves owner-builder Eric Vance) that captures all of the romance and fun that the Victorian-era inventors of the "canoe yawl" envisioned.