I have been considering building a kayak from a kit. If anybody has had either a positive or negative experience with a kit, I would appreciate hearing your comments. Please indicate which company you purchased your kit from. I have acquaintances who have built Chesapeake Light Kayaks and Pygmy Kayaks, but I'm sure there are others out there. Thanks for the comments. Terry. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Have had very good experience with a Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC) North Bay kit. The folks in the shop field questions professionally and in an idiot-friendly manner when necessary (speaking from experience). They have a wide array of kayak types and a beautiful catalog. (They also do demo Wednesdays [third Wednesday of each summer season month] at Pier 7 on the South River in Annapolis, if you're local.) Also, you might like to look at Nick Schade's Guillemot bulletin board, http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/cgi-bin/KBbbs.cgi, which can give you a lot of kit-makers' experience --- not just Guillemots, but a lot of CLC and other strip-built and S&G boats, too. If there's any way to try-before-you-buy, do it! Jack *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hi Terry, I built a CLC Chesapeake 17 from plans. As far as I know, the instructions are the same for plans and kit boats. They were somewhat lacking. CLC is pretty prompt, though at answering emails, and gives good phone service too. The whole building experience, all in all, is pretty rewarding. Shawn Terry wrote: > I have been considering building a kayak from a kit. If anybody has had either a positive or negative experience with a kit, I would appreciate hearing your comments. Please indicate which company you purchased your kit from. -- 0 © 1999 ____©/______ ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\ ,/ /~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Shawn W. Baker 0 http://www.missoulaconcrete/shawn/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Terry, Most people are unaware of San Javier kayaks. I ran into the two people in the photo: http://users.ccnet.com/~sjkayak/welcome.html last Saturday and took a good look at their boats. They were paddling 18' singles. Very attractive boats. They have rockered bottoms like the Chesapeake but the deck construction is multi-faceted more like a Pygmy. Ten minutes conversation while we waited for the rangers to clear a bunch of slightly inebriated non-boating people away from the kayak loading area provided all I know of these boats. They emphasized that from their point of view, Chesapeake's instructions are not sufficient for a beginner, and that theirs are much more complete. (They noted that Chesapeake's people provide tons more information when you contact them by phone or email.) They spoke well of Pygmy when I mentioned that I was considering building a Arctic Tern or perhaps an Osprey. jerry. At 08:55 PM 10/14/1999 -0700, Terry wrote: >I have been considering building a kayak from a kit. If anybody has had >either a positive or negative experience with a kit, I would appreciate >hearing your comments. Please indicate which company you purchased your kit >from. > >I have acquaintances who have built Chesapeake Light Kayaks and Pygmy >Kayaks, but I'm sure there are others out there. > >Thanks for the comments. > >Terry. > >*************************************************************************** >PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not >to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission >Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net >Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net >Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ >*************************************************************************** > *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Great, more choices!! I checked out San Javier's web site and didn't find out much. Their single seemed like a fast design, lower to the water and less beamy than Pygmy's boats. Both of those things appealed to me. Let me know if you hear anything more about these folks. Thanks, Bill Oetjen woetjen_at_zoo.uvm.edu *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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