Congratulations on the completion of your new craft!

I learned a lot while paddling my Chesapeake 17. May she take you to beautiful places in safety, speed, and comfort!

Shawn Baker

> Today I put the last fillet on the hip braces and my Chesapeake 17 kit is
> built. It looks better than I ever thought it would, and that’s before
> painting and varnishing. In a few weeks, when the warm weather returns to
> this part of the world, it will be passed through the basement window,
> onto the neighbours shed roof and manoeuvred round to the front porch.
> There I will sand, paint and varnish it, and paddle it as soon as the
> water is soft. Can’t wait to see how it performs. This was my millennium
> project (started at Christmas) and also my recognition of officially
> becoming a senior citizen It got finished some months before the second
> item so I guess I will have to make another boat for that significant
> event. I’ll try a stripper next. I found that the letters and
> encouragement in this newsgroup helped enormously, both to make up my mind
> to build and with ideas during the process. My God, the laundry room looks
> tidy now with just the boat sitting on its sawhorses and no working
> litter. If I can just get the epoxy lumps off the Maytag, it will look
> almost presentable.