About Us

Chesapeake Light Craft helps you 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.

We shipped our 20,000th kit in November, 2010. By Summer 2020, we'd shipped 40,000 boat kits. 50,000 kits is in sight.

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, marine grade supplies, comprehensive instructional materials, videos, scores of pages of helpful tips, and unlimited tech support. We also offer week-long classes that will help ensure your boat actually gets built. 

CLC’s staff together comprise more than a hundred years of boatbuilding experience. All senior staff are trained professional boatbuilders; all employees, from shipping clerks to graphic designers, get free kits and individualized training. Since moving to our Annapolis location in 1995, we have always maintained a large and busy shop where we build prototypes and custom commissions. We also teach classes in our shop. Visitors can walk through and watch boats under construction. Can't make it to Annapolis? The CLC ShopCam has been streaming live on the internet for more than twenty years! All of our boat kit manufacturing is done in-house; nothing is subcontracted. In the front of the building, our newly expanded classroom and shop adjacent to the showroom are buzzing with activity. More than 50 completed boats (and our Teardrop Camper!) are on display.

CLC has been profiled in the Washington Post, the Financial Times, Forbes FYI, the Washington Business Journal, Corridor magazine, Soundings, Professional Boatbuilder, the Baltimore Business Journal, the Baltimore Sun, and many others. Many of our designs have been reviewed or displayed in the Launchings section of WoodenBoat magazine.

Chesapeake Light Craft has won many awards, including the Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year; John C. Harris was recently recognized as one of “Maryland’s Most Influential Businessmen.” Professional Boatbuilder magazine, Chesapeake Bay magazine, and Soundings magazine have featured CLC recently in cover articles.

CLC starred in a series of television shows about boatbuilding for the DIY Network, which ran for several years beginning in 2001. Our YouTube channel has received millions of views. In 2011, the History Channel aired an episode of "Modern Marvels" featuring boatbuilding at CLC. Chesapeake Light Craft has also been featured in pieces on the Today Show and on the Voice of America.

If you're going to invest your time in a boatbuilding project, it had better be a great-looking boat. As you surf through this 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 boat kits anywhere. Because wood-epoxy boats like ours have lifespans measured in generations, we think the boat you build should feel like 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 that 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 build good sawhorses? 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