Great information, Pete. Thanks a lot.

Do you know where you found Merganser 16 kits for sale? I wasn't able to find any on the interet - just plans. For my first attempt there's no way I'm building from plans, which answers your question about tools. I don't mind buying the right sander at all. We do enough misc projects that it would come in handy anyway.

As for the time frame, I think I'm going at it from the standpoint of falling in love with a boat and taking as much time as it takes to build it well. It will get on the water when it does. Hopefully it will be that much sweeter when I actually launch. In the meantime, I have a boat to satisfy my need to be out paddling. Besides, half the fun is in the hunt for that "perfect" boat. And as soon as I paddle my first one for awhile, I'll probably want a different one. Groan.

Thanks again.

Patsy

: I built a stitch and glue Shearwater Merganser 16 (21" wide by 16-9ft
: long) two summers ago with my SO who is slightly taller but the same
: weight category as you. It fits her very nicely and could be just what you
: are looking for. As a kit, i think it runs about 700 or 800. you can also
: get a kit that has a strip built deck that runs closer to 1000 but gives
: you some of the beauty of a strip boat but with some of the faster
: building speed of the stitch and glue. Its a cool looking and very nice
: performing Greenlande style boat.

: building directly from plans, with input from people here about material, can
: possibly save you some money but stretch out the building time since you
: need to find and source all teh materials. getting marine plywood is not
: always the easiest locally depending where you are. I usually try and buy
: wood in bulk from CLC to get the best deal but that means more than 1 boat
: worth of wood. Otherwise you pay a shipping premium and then the kits get
: closer in price.

: as far as CLC, I built a Chessapeake 18 3 summers ago. Its a fine boat. as
: many do, i got a boat too big for me. a 17 or 18LT would have been more
: appropriate. i say that i might cut the top off mine and turn it more LT
: sized sometime. a chessapeake 14 would fit you nicely or a 16LT. A 17LT
: still fits me fine at 6-2 and 200 lbs so don't even consider going that
: big.

: I'm building a strip built Redfish Return that is out of your size range, but
: all the Redfish boats are beautiful and the instructions are good too. The
: silver is not a bad size for you.

: Both CLC, Shearwater, Pygmy, Shearwater, and Redfish all put together good
: instructions and have good internet customer support as well. Rob Macks
: does too with his line of boats.

: Prime consideration is how much time you want to spend and also how many
: tools you have or are willing to buy/borrow. what ever style both you
: built, you will almost absolutely need a random robital sander (50 to 100
: bucks). Unless you build a strip built from a kit, you will likely need
: jig saw, table saw, possibly router......

: realistic timewise: stitch and glue kit = 80 hours
: stitch and glue from plans = 100 hours

: strip built kit = 200 hours
: strip built from plans 250 - 300 hours

: for the strip built, these assume some degree of cuteness with using
: different woods etc. also, the above hours are actual building hours and
: don't include the obvious time spent watching the glue dry.

: I finished my first S&G boat is about 3 months working wkends and during some
: wkend nights. some people who are retired can cram it into 3 or 4 weeks
: but then the time it takes glue to dry starts to impact how fast you can
: build.

: I finished the above Merganser in about the same amount of time but putting
: some neater features into it and building it from plans and also having
: her help on it so I wasn't always doing all the work on it.

: I've been working on my Redfish Return from plans since last NOv when I
: ripped the strips from boards and probably won't have it finished until
: this Nov. although I have been out of the country for 2 months this year
: unable to work on the boat so that makes it about 10 to 11 months of
: actual time.

: Decide when you want to try and be finished by and that might dictate boat
: choice as well as cost. After you build the first one you may decide that
: building boats is fun and then start making another.

: have fun and good luck.

: plenty of good info on this boat. CLC has a forum too on their site when you
: can ask questions. Also, if you let folks know what area in the country
: you are, you might have offers from people to try out and look at various
: models. For example, I'm in eastern upstate NY. People are in the midwest,
: Northeast, west coast, etc and more than likely to live near you.

: hope all this helps.

: pete c
: albany, NY
: currently wolverhampton UK