Hello clc-boatbuilder comrades ,

today I finished my Wood Duck 12 kayak ! I am happy ! she floats well and all my expectations are achieved , at least to the greatest part.

The building was started on 29th Dec. 2008. This is the almost traditional day for starting my boatbuilding projects.  i had a number of ups and downs during thebuilt- of course. especially the bending of the bottm panels on the stern part demanded patience and care. This feature of the Wood Duck 12 design is broadly known. I got some mental assistance byone professional boatbuilder and an absolutely perfectly skilled amateur. Both ad already buitl Wood Ducks and during their work the "big bang" happened with the sternpart of one of the bottom panels. Thanks to their warning I could avoid the "bang" . Nevertheles on my boat one can feel some humps in the portside of the stern when stroking the hull with one hand. 

I have made strap-eyes, bow- and sternhandles  as well as the footbraces by my own design. Eyes and handles are made of layers of walnut with maple in between. The footbraces are of the sawtooth type from plywood.

On the water the boat behaves very well. Today was a cool (7° C) misty -foggy weather with bft 2 winds. This weather -ofcourse- did not encourage me to testthe boat to its limits. However it was a fine autumn paddling on a north german inshore lake close to the baltic Sea.

For more pictures and the story of the built please see also www.downstairsboatworks.blogspot.com. Sorry it is not absolutely up to date. I will update this blog very soon .

Al the best for all of your CLC projects 

Reinhold