I'd ask CLC, they have been very helpful with my questions. I think the answer to your question lies in the useage. The Patuxent is built for straight away speed, the Cheasapeake, more for open water. I have a friend who paddles a Cape Charles (similar bow to the Patuxent), he had real problems with any waves - everything comes right over the bow. If your in calm conditions and not interested in a lot of tracing coast line the Patuxent might be better, any rougher water or increase manuverability would favor the Cheasapeake.

I also built a Cheasapeake 17 last yr. This yr is my wife's turn. I expect to build the equivalent of the Cheasapeake 16 LT. She's ~5'8" and 135. When she paddled my boat on a windy day she had real troubles turning the boat at all, sitting up way to high. As a result I'd made some preliminary sketches for a boat for her, I was simply going to subtract 5-8% off each offset of my 17 for her hull panels (making it ~22" wide), drop the side panels by 2" and measure the offsets pt's ~11" (8% less than the N 12"). I felt that this should faithfully reproduce the hull shape of the Cheasapeake but in a size more suited to my wife. Later I discovered that CLC had the same idea and made similar plan avail. I contacted CLC asking about the plans, specifically how much for LT plans if all I need is the offsets and a brief description of any relevant changes between my existing book on the Cheas 17 and the 16LT (I didn't want to pay cross border shipping or pay the duty taxes associated with shipping products into Canada). I know that my the book received with my Cheas 17 includes the 16 and 18, only the large diagrams change, I assume the LT versions are very similar.

Seems my suggestion of a different cost (I just asked "how much") for an e-mail version of the plans rubbed Chris the wrong way, he didn't want to discuss it. Shame, I'd think they could have a real market for online purchases and immediate e-mail delivery of a PDF or word processor file with full colour pictures, improved documentation and offsets. Oh well, who am I to tell them how to do business.

BTW - given Chris's response, I think I'm going to go with my original idea for plans - if anyone can actually give me a more accurate differentiation between the 17 and 16LT it may be worth the full set of plans (no comment from CLC)

I do plan on paying the $10 for making a second kayak from the first set of plans - given I'm using the first set of plans as a base.

Mark

> My winter project is to build a boat for my wife. She can't decide between
> a CLC 17' Patuxent or 16' Chesapeake LT. She's 5'8", 125lb. We do
> mostly day touring trips on fairly calm fresh and salt water. I built a
> 17' Chesapeake last year.

> Does anyone out there have any experience with either boat? I'd appreciate
> your advice.