OkoumeFest: A Boatbuilders' Rendezvous

Mark your calendars, wooden boat lovers and builders: Chesapeake Light Craft will present its 20th annual small boat rendezvous on Friday and Saturday, May 18–19, 2018, rain or shine (please note that if thunderstorms are detected nearby we'll bring the boats off the water). 

Fri., May 18th: Open House in Annapolis; Sat., May 19th: Boat Demos on Kent Island

“Okoume” is the plantation-grown African hardwood used in tens of thousands of CLC’s build-your-own-boat kits. OkoumeFest features an open house with technical seminars on Friday at the CLC plant in Annapolis, MD, and on Saturday an on-the-water rendezvous at Matapeake State Park on Kent Island.

The Friday seminars are informative and fun, but the highlight of OkoumeFest always comes on Saturday, when we bring virtually everything in our shop over to the beach at Matapeake for our friends to paddle, row, sail, and generally put through their paces. We also encourage fellow boatbuilders to bring their homebuilt watercraft to show and compete for best-in-show honors and various awards. 

OkoumeFest is also a special chance to try some of the boats, like PocketShip, we can't usually take on the road with us, and some that are new designs, like the Jimmy Skiff II, Tenderly XP, and the Waterlust Sailing Canoe. Attendance is free on both days this year, but please RSVP so that we can plan for the hordes.