Sean:

My boy and I are building the Chesapeake 16LT from plans and are having a blast.

If you have done what you have listed in your post you will have no problem. The people on this list are a very deep well of information on any subject, so do not be afraid of using them.

As to the sheer clamp and deck nailing problems noted in one response, we did the seer clamps as per instructions and had no problems. We deviated from the deck nailing and used drywall screws with a piece of wood to act as a clamp. They worked very well and will not show as we plan to paint with a 1" strip on the deck as shown in many photoes of CLC kayaks.

Go for it (you will save many $ going with the plans), enjoy it and ask for lots of help from this board.

Stan Heeres