Well, after 4 months (or so) of alternating anxiety and relief over every phase of the process (most of which were completely new to me) my wife's 44 lb. CLC LT16 hit the water this weekend. And, if I do say so myself, it was a beautiful sight and quite a thrill for both of us.

Despite pretty good documentation from CLC, I really don't think it would have turned out nearly as good if I hadn't been reading every post to this board for the past five months. You folks have all provided tremendous help and encouragement. The most noticeable feature - and worthy of special mention - are the "Ross Leidy" internal bungee hatch holders which really made for a nice clean appearance on the deck and work beautifully. They're very easy to do on a boat with shear clamps since they make a natural spot for tethering the bungees. Probably took me 10 minutes to set them up.

And while my wife did most of the paddling (after all it's her boat) I did "get behind the wheel" for a half-hour and was quite impressed with the tracking, ease of accelleration, and turn-carving ability. Seas were quite calm on the part of San Francisco Bay we went out on, so can't comment too much on severe weather handling, but so far so good.

A picture shall be forthcoming after I deal with developing, scanning, and finding one of those free web site hosts (I guess the picture will be right behind a Coca Cola banner or some such thing).

Then it's on to the next project - and this one's for me. Trying to decide between a Cormorant 16 or another CLC LT16 (which fit my 5'6" 155lbs "adonis-like" body very comfortably). And I think it's time to order myself a copy of Nick's book and see if I feel up to the challenge of stripping the deck. So thanks again to all of you for all the help. And hope to make some face to face friends among this group at Port Townsend this summer.

Peter