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Shearwater 17 kayak during the 2021 Schoodic Sea Kayak Retreat, ME
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Shearwater 17
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Shearwater 17 kayak being paddled by the designer, Eric Schade.
Sale
Phillip T paddling in a chop in his shearwater 17 kayak.
Shearwater 17 kayak during the 2021 Schoodic Sea Kayak Retreat, ME Thumbnail
Shearwater 17 Thumbnail
Shearwater 17 kayak being paddled by the designer, Eric Schade. Thumbnail
Phillip T paddling in a chop in his shearwater 17 kayak. Thumbnail

Shearwater 17

Builder Testimonials

A graceful, fast, and sporty sea kayak that excels in all conditions and that comes in a detailed, sophisticated, and easy-to-build kit.

  • Skill Level Beginner
  • Estimated Build Time 80 Hours

This project was designed with the beginner in mind. Assembly manuals and documentation are calibrated for builders who are using epoxy and fiberglass for the first time. In kits, little or no trimming and fitting of parts is required.

This kit features computer-cut parts, puzzle joints, pre-drilled wire holes, and computer-indicated bulkhead locations, speeding and simplifying the construction process. The illustrated assembly manual makes the construction process accessible to first-time builders.

Build this boat if...

  • You weigh less than 220lbs and your shoe size is 12 or less
  • You want a sporty, West Greenland-style kayak
  • You prefer advanced handling qualities in all conditions, including waves
  • You want a closer-fitting cockpit (like a bucket seat in a sports car)

  • #1 Seller

    Thousands of kits shipped

  • Easy to Build

    Your first boatbuilding project!

  • Versatile

    A design that does everything well

  • Quality Materials

    Only the best professional-grade materials

As the old Packard ad goes, "Ask the Man Who Owns One." You'll find examples of this popular design on every continent except Antarctica. And we're working on Antarctica.

If this is your first go at mixing epoxy and assembling pre-cut wooden parts, here's a good design for starting out!

Fast but comfortable, comfortable but sleek, sophisticated but easy to build, elegant but straightforward. If you're going to have just one boat...

Quality Materials

Our kits ship with the same first-class marine plywood, timber, epoxy, and fiberglass that we use in our own boatbuilding shop. It's not cheap, but these boats are meant to last forever!

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Builders also looked at...

Take One of our Boatbuilding Classes

We offer classes for many of the boats we sell. Teaching sites stretch from Maryland to Washington State and from Maine to California. Click here to find out more.
Shearwater 17 kayak during the 2021 Schoodic Sea Kayak Retreat, ME

Shearwater 17 kayak during the 2021 Schoodic Sea Kayak Retreat, ME

Shearwater 17
Shearwater 17 kayak being paddled by the designer, Eric Schade.

Shearwater 17 kayak being paddled by the designer, Eric Schade.

Phillip T paddling in a chop in his shearwater 17 kayak.

Phillip T paddling in a chop in his shearwater 17 kayak.

Shearwater 17 kayak during the 2021 Schoodic Sea Kayak Retreat, ME Thumbnail
Shearwater 17 Thumbnail
Shearwater 17 kayak being paddled by the designer, Eric Schade. Thumbnail
Phillip T paddling in a chop in his shearwater 17 kayak. Thumbnail

Specifications

Length
17'0"
Beam
22-1/4"
Cockpit Size
31" x 16-3/8"
Hull Weight
44 lbs.
Paddler Weight
150 - 220 lbs.
Max Payload
270 lbs.
Knee Height
12-3/8"
Max. Men's Shoe Size
12.5

Performance

Stability

3 out of 5
Very Tippy
Very Stable

Speed

4 out of 5
Cruiser
Racer

Cockpit Room

3 out of 5
Close Fit
Huge Cockpit

Payload

3 out of 5
Day Tripper
Freight Hauler

Ease of Construction

5 out of 5
Requires Patience
Very Easy
Shearwater 17 kayak being paddled by the designer, Eric Schade.
Shearwater 17 kayak being paddled by the designer, Eric Schade.

Overview

"The Shearwater is an eye-catching, light and fast cruiser that does many things well. It is a strong contender for the budget-minded paddler looking to answer the 'if I could only have one kayak' question." - from Sea Kayaker's October 2006 review of the Shearwater 17. Read entire review here.

Stitch-and-glue sea kayak design has grown up a lot in the last fifteen years, driven by enthusiastic paddlers who prefer ultralight, beautiful boats that handle like extensions of themselves. For a new line of high-performance sea kayaks, Chesapeake Light Craft commissioned veteran paddler and kayak designer Eric Schade. Eric has created several sleek, state-of-the-art wood-composite kayak designs for us.

The elegant lines of the Shearwaters result in real performance. The sweeping sheerline complements the nicely balanced ends; there isn't an awkward hump or bump anywhere. The sheer panels are "tumbled home" to reduce windage and improve paddle clearance. Like all Chesapeake Light Craft kayak kits, the decks are smoothly cambered, not cut up into a faceted, homebuilt appearance.

West Greenland-style hulls provide telepathic handling to the skilled paddler, while initial and secondary stability are ample for the newly initiated. On the water, the Shearwater demonstrates excellent poise and responsiveness in a broad range of conditions, edging turns easily when leaned but straight when pushed hard in surf. A cutaway bow and skeg-like stern ensures tracking even in extremely rough water. The relatively low profile means you'll spend less time on corrective strokes and more time covering ground.

The Shearwater design abounds in interesting and innovative features. To emphasize the clean lines, the decks are computer cut from sapele plywood, a beautiful mahogany with a reddish-brown swirling grain, to contrast with the honey-colored okoume sides and bottoms. Flush hatches are standard. Veteran stitch-and-glue builders will find notable tweaks in the Shearwater kits, including CNC-cut "finger joints" instead of the more typical scarf joints. The finger joints eliminate the alignment step required of scarf joints, so parts are quicker to assemble and impossible to misalign. Another luxury in the Shearwater kits is that 99% of the holes for the wire stitches have been drilled for you by our CNC machine. This means faster assembly and no measuring for bulkhead locations, as those holes are drilled, too.

Do you fit in this kayak?  Study our kayak fit chart.

Buying Options

Choose Your Boatbuilding Experience

Start your kit-building experience by choosing the option that best suits your experience and itinerary. Don’t have the confidence to build on your own? No worries! Join a boatbuilding class or hire us to build a custom boat for you.

  1. Select Your Configuration

    Build From a Kit:
    Most builders start with the Base Kit. It’s all there.
    Build From Scratch:
    Build from scratch using full-sized plans.
    Build From a Wood Parts Only Kit:
    For those who have their own supply of epoxy, fiberglass, and hardware.
    Order Study Plans or Manuals:
    Like to study up a bit first? Download study plans or a copy of the assembly manual. 

  2. Choose Options and Add-ons

    Additional Components:
    Add rudders, skegs, hatch options, spray skirts, and more.

  3. Get Building!

    Computer-cut kits feature all of the latest tweaks to ease assembly, including pre-drilled holes for stitching-and-gluing, puzzle joints, and precision in the fitting of parts.

Standard Configuration

Sale
$1,498.00 $1,310.00

This Shearwater kit includes instructions, pre-cut Okoume and...

This Shearwater kit includes instructions, pre-cut Okoume and Sapele parts, flush hatches, adjustable footbraces, epoxy kit, fiberglass for hull and deck, full deck rigging, tractor seat, backband, and hardware. 

Alternative Configurations

$935.00

This Shearwater kit includes instructions, pre-cut Okoume and...

This Shearwater kit includes instructions, pre-cut Okoume and Sapele parts, and flush hatches. 
$119.00

This Shearwater kit includes full-size plans and instructions...

This Shearwater kit includes full-size plans and instructions. 

 
$25.00

This Shearwater kit includes instructions.  NOTE: CLC instr...

This Shearwater kit includes instructions. 

Image of open manual

NOTE: CLC instruction manuals walk you through construction step by step with photos and drawings, and are a good way to get acquainted with the process in advance of a kit purchase. (Manual purchase refundable with kit purchase.) There is not enough information in the manual to build a boat from scratch---you will need the complete Plans & Manual Only package for that.
$2.99

You can get printable study plans for most of your favorite ...

You can get printable study plans for most of your favorite kits and plans by return email --- for just a few dollars! 

When you order a set, you'll receive the study plans emailed in the form of PDFs at 8.5" x 11" (216x280mm).  

These printable drawings (most are two pages) help give a sense of the construction process and a feel for what the full-size plans or kit contain. Please note that a boat can not be built from Study Plans; they are to preview a project in print media; the Study Plans are an excellent broad-strokes look at the process. The subsequent escalation for more information is to order the boat's print instruction manual (where available), which will walk you through the project step-by-step.   

Upon placing the order, you'll receive an email with a link to the PDF.  Be sure to use the correct email address! If you have filters in place, ensure emails from "admin@clcboats.com" are not blocked.

Additional Options

$195.00

Many kayaks can benefit from a retractable skeg. There will b...

Many kayaks can benefit from a retractable skeg. There will be conditions in which no skeg is needed at all, other occasions when just a little skeg will help, and days in smooth water with a strong breeze over the aft quarter when a skeg is essential.

The Skeg Kit is comprised of three basic components: the skeg itself, the skeg box where the skeg lives in the boat, and the control slider. The skeg is a fin that can be retracted in and out. The skeg box is just big enough and wide enough to hold the skeg. The control slider is mounted up near the cockpit where it is convenient to the paddler.
Shearwater 17 built by Philip V.
Shearwater 17 built by Philip V.

What builders are saying

I'm very pleased with the construction and performance of the Shearwater 17 kayak. It handled great and carried all my gear. I'll make another one this winter. Maybe a  Shearwater 16 for my wife? Thanks for providing such great boats!

Mark A | NV
Verified Builder

You sold me the kit for this Shearwater 17 at the WoodenBoat show in Mystic. I worked on her non-stop as soon as she arrived, got some good advice and help from my dad. I finished her in time to go kayak camping with my family in Georgian Bay, north of Toronto, at the end of August. I named her Osprey. I love her very much. She is living in my family's living room for the winter, stacked on top of my dad's Arctic Hawk (which he also built from a CLC kit). Thank you so much. This is a GREAT boat!!!!!

Bennie U. | CT
Verified Builder

I recently finished a Shearwater 17.  What an awesome kayak! This design by Eric Schade is a treat to paddle in our coastal waters. I have paddled several different stitch-and-glues, and built Nick Schade's Great Auk Single and Tandem that are pictured in the CLC catalog. The Shearwater is by far the best looking and among the best handling stitch-and-glues on the market.  Congratulations on such a tremendous design!

Steve G. | NC
Verified Builder

Wildly brilliant kit - have a Shearwater 17 that tracks extremely well, very stable, and fast. Looks great, especially with Sapele deck. Kit lacks only deck lines, s-cam buckle hatch straps, and hints on how to do excellent varnishing. Love da boat!

Philip V. | IL
Verified Builder

"THAT is a GORGEOUS kayak!" gushed a young mother of two leaving the Kensington, Maryland, farmers market upon seeing my freshly completed CLC Shearwater 17 atop my car as I stopped by enroute to its first launch at OkoumeFest 2015. I worked up this Shearwater 17 with Eric Schade in a class at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath in September 2014. I took the boat back to Maine last August. The kayak draws a lot of attention and compliments everywhere I take it. 

Craig S. | PA
Verified Builder

I wanted to tell you that I reached the great milestone of the first stitching together of the hull and deck on my Shearwater 17.  Thanks for your help in getting to this point.  The manual says it's time to invite all your friends and neighbors in to see how great it looks, and that was no lie.  The Shearwater is a beauty, and we invited our kayak-building friends over for a celebration. In spite of all the challenges (and that is the point of building yourself, right?), I couldn't be happier with the CLC kit, the quality of the materials, tools, the customer support, and most importantly support from other builders, on the blog and elsewhere.  What a great job your company has done.  I couldn't have imagined such a wonderful experience until I started the work.

Many thanks to you and the crew at CLC.

Alec T. | VA
Verified Builder

I just had to let you know how much I'm enjoying the Shearwater 17 that I built. It's everything I had ever hoped for in a kayak and more! I recently spent two weeks out at Smith Mountain Lake in western Virginia. I probably paddled over 200 miles. I was out on the water every morning by sunrise and set out in a different direction each day. I found myself getting lost in my own world not realizing how far I was paddling. The Shearwater in calm water tracks like it's on a rail and the ease in which it paddles is unbelievable! I was never uncomfortable in the boat and would paddle for 3 to 4 hours at a time and had to force myself to turn around and paddle back so I could spend time with the family. It's just such a great boat! 

Additionally, the heads I turned as I would pass by other boats or docks was amazing. I met more people who were so fascinated by the fact that I actually built the boat and how beautiful it was. You got a lot of free publicity! Hopefully it will bring you more business. It is a beautiful boat in and out of the water and I am just loving it! I would recommend this boat to anyone whose looking for a long distance cruiser that's comfortable, fast and a blast to paddle.

Fred S. | PA
Verified Builder

Videos

Building a CLC Shearwater Kayak Kit

Build a Kayak at the Maine Maritime Museum

Shearwater 17 - Chesapeake Light Craft

Frequently Asked Questions

Has anyone built both the Chesapeake and the Shearwater and how would you compare the build time and complexity of the two?

We've built a handful of Shearwaters and scores of Chesapeakes. I think the elapsed building time of the two boats is about the same. We kept an eye on the hours when we built the second Shearwater 17 and it was about 80 hours total. That was moving fast, and often with two people working on it at once.

There are no scarfs to glue and no sheerclamps to plane on the standard Shearwater, and that reduces time compared to the Chesapeake. You gain all of that back in putting the Shearwater's deck on. Actually, you have the deck on and off about four times in the process of assembling it. None of the processes are any more difficult than the Chesapeake, just different.

On a Shearwater, does it matter what order I lay the three layers of glass on the hull?

Yes, it matters.  The first layer is the all-encompassing layer; the second is just on the bottom panels, and third come the bow and stern reinforcement.

There are two problems with doing that in reverse order: First, you might get an air bubble at the edge of the layers that end short. Second, if the smaller patches shift beneath the all-over sheet, you'll have the devil of a time getting them back in place.

You want to apply all the layers DRY, and then wet them out with epoxy together at the same time.

Are there any significant differences between building the Shearwaters and the Chesapeakes?

The sequence for the standard Shearwater is thus: Wire the hull up like any other CLC boat, install fillets, etc. Wire together the deck (with a few temporary forms providing the deck camber), apply "tack welds" to the deck, and wire it onto the hull. Take the deck back off to finish the fillets and fiberglass on the deck. Like most of the hull, the deck is fiberglassed on both sides; there are about four layers of 'glass right behind the cockpit. At a last you wire the deck on for good and apply fillets to the hull-to-deck joint.

The Shearwater Hybrid process is different: there are temporary forms upon which the stripped deck is assembled, and the hull has the usual CLC sheerclamps to which the strip deck is ultimately fastened once the forms are removed. Definitely takes more time to build, but a fraction of the time of an all-strip hull.

How do I order this kit?

Click on the Buying Options tab the top left of this page and follow the directions.

If I buy one of your boat kits, what else will I need?

Chesapeake Light Craft kits contain all the parts and materials you need to build the boat. The kit includes pre-cut parts, hardware, epoxy, fiberglass, plans and instructions. Our standard kayak kits also have the seats, hatches, bulkheads, footbraces, and the deck-rigging. About the only thing kits don't include is the final finish: paint or varnish. Your boat's color scheme is entirely up to you.

You'll need a few ordinary tools, like a cordless drill, a decent 5-inch sander, and for most boats a wood plane. You'll need disposables such as sandpaper and paint brushes and mixing cups.

You need a workspace a couple of feet bigger all the way around than the boat you want to build, and you'll need to be able to maintain temperatures between about 55 degrees F and 95 degrees F during steps when epoxy is being applied or curing. Since a lot of boatbuilding gets done during winter, we've written up some tips on how to heat a cold space cheaply, easily, and safely.

How much does this boat weigh and how much can it carry?

The weight and payload of this boat, along with other statistics such length and beam, can be found under Specs in the Specifications section, which is just below the lead image seen at the top of this page.

Can you send me the plans digitally?

Sorry, but until digital rights management technology for marine architectural work catches up to that used for books and music, we are unable to transmit digital plans. Currently, only study plans and manuals can be sent digitally.

Classes

Take One of our Boatbuilding Classes

We offer classes for many of the boats we sell. Teaching sites stretch from Maryland to Washington State and from Maine to California. Click here to find out more.

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