MC 16.5 is finished, Thank you CLC!

Builder's Forum
1

My Mill Creek 16.5 is finally finished and started its maiden voyage out of my living room this past weekend. Thanks to all who offered their help and support during the build. A special thank you to the staff at CLC, words can not express the smile on my wife’s face after I actually got the kayak out of the house. I am looking forward to seeing all of you at OkoumeFest this year. I will be adding photos to the following site now that I have some extra time on my hands.

 

Regards,

Dana

 

http://dehager.smugmug.com/Boats/CLC-Mill-Creek-165/6686487_BbGBe

 

 

2

Beautiful work!  I can’t believe your wife has not turned that into furniture or art.  Please post some photos of the launch.

3

WOW! Only time for a quick browse of the build photo's but that is amazing. Well done - superb workmanship. Is that your first build?! Probably the best I've seen.

I'll be interested in hearing how the rudder works out - been thinking about one for my MC16.

 

Regards

Steve 

4

Beautiful boat,you make me jelous.I had a question for you. The bar on your trunk and the rear yakama bar, are they rollers? if so how did you do that?

 

Awesome boat

 

Jason

5

Beautiful boat! Enjoy!

Dan 

6

Thanks for the comments.

I thought about how I was going to load and transport a 17 foot kayak on a car for a long time. The Mill Creek 16.5 is rather odd as it has a flat bottom and a hard chine. Most commercially available racks and accessories are for V-bottoms and a round chine. The only product I found that might work was the Yakima Showboat, which was rather expensive and it did not get good reviews. Additionally I would have to lift the kayak up to the height of the roof rack to get it on the roller.

 What I came up with was a PVC pipe roller which is held onto the trunk of the car by suction cups and a length of schedule 80 PVC pipe slipped over the rear Yakima roof rack load bar. This allows me to load the kayak by myself and the simplicity keeps the car clean when not in use. Total cost of the parts was about $30 and only took a couple of hours to fabricate. If there is more interest I can post some better pictures and parts information to the forum.

http://dehager.smugmug.com/Boats/CLC-Mill-Creek-165/6686487_BbGBe

 

7

That would be  great if you could share what you did to make the roller racks. It is something I am going to have to figure out for my kayak. 

 

Thanks

 Jason

8

There is a line running down the outside of your sheer.  Is that part of the rudder system or a bungee?

9

That is an anchor trolly, it allows me to anchor form the bow or stern. I will be using it for fishing in my local ponds and lakes.

10

Dana,

Congratulations on your Best in Show award!  I was expecting to see your boat show up somewhere in the award categories.  Well done sir.

11

Fantastic workmaship, what a beautiful boat!  I am almost finished with my MC 16.5 hybrid.  I would love to know more about your rack set up as well.

Nate Brandt