: I built a CLC Chessy 17 and am in the process of building a stripper now. I
: absolutely love the Chessy and have had NO problems at all handling the
: boat in adverse conditions loaded for camping. Whether the waves are
: hitting me straight, astern, quartering into or away from this boat takes
: it easily. I'm not just talking 15 knot winds with small waves, I'm
: talking 25 knot winds, 3-4 foot breaking chop on top of 5 foot swells
: rolling through at the same time. Anyway, I was on a trip recently when
: someone asked me why I would want a wooden kayak because they are not as
: resistant to rock damage as $2500 fiberglass kayaks. My boat handled as
: well as (even better than) the other 4 glass boats in the group. I
: explained how it has already proven how well it handles (which is a great
: reason to have one), but could not really dispell his fears of punching a
: hole in the hull during an accidental dumping of the kayak on a ledge.

: Anyone here have and experiences with glass boats being holed? How about S&G
: or strippers? I did an expedition layup (two layers on the bottom outside
: and one layer on the inside) on the hull and KNOW it can take some
: pounding on rocks. To me, I would rather have a boat that handled superbly
: so I could AVOID the nasty rock dumpings than have a boat I couldn't count
: on but might survive a sharp rock.

I am one of the folks who just recently put a nice dime sized puncture hole in the bottom of my Chessie 18. Smacked a rock just behind the back bulkhead playing around in some shallow whitewater in the backwaters of western maine. The glass in that area was 6 oz outside, taped on the inside and then 6 oz glass on the inside as well. It does happen I guess. Normal wear and tear has only left scratches though on the rest of the boat.

The hole never leaked though since the wood swelled abit sealing all the cracking surrounding the hole and I only found it 3 hours after the incident when I was able to beach and flip the boat to look at it.

Fixed the hole with a patch once I got home after covering it with ducttape for the rest of the trip. The patch is ugly now but will hopefully be resanded and glassed nicely this winter during the offseason.

YOu can still crack a fiberglass boat anyways. Now plastic boat can keep on going a while after smacking them into a rock but they are almost as heavy as the rocks themselves.

Pete czerpak
albany, NY