New Peapod variant

From a recent interview with John C. Harris (Owner, CEO, Chief Designer, Benevolent Tyrant, Scourge of Small Verminous Animals, Herder of Cats and Customer Punching Bag) of Chesapeake Light Craft, for The Moaning Chair podcast:

"The CLC Peapod, aka Lighthouse Tender Peapod, has been one of the most talked-about boats in recent CLC history. Its cargo capacity, ease of construction and classic good looks have made it an instant favorite, with the forum population (or, as I like to call them, the Peanut Gallery) drooling over every morsel of information and image that gets released. Well, I'm here today to to give everyone something to literally drool about.

The original Peapod design is indigenous to Maine. As such, it is evocative of the New England boating tradition - clinker built, riveted, slow to assemble. Our Peapod, while carrying on the tradition of a beautiful, stable and functional boat, is a product of the 21st century Maryland Eastern Shore - stitch and glue with a quick build time that fits in with the busy lifestyle of our modern customers. We wanted to make that point by calling the boat something other than CLC Peapod, hence the name Lighthouse Tender. That also fit in well with a product line business model wherein we re-used major design components of the Tenderly Dinghy. But honestly, there's not much Maryland Eastern Shore in that name.

So we were sitting around the shop one day, having lunch and inspiration hit us - nothing says Eastern Shore like chicken. From the billion dollar chicken factory farms that perfume the Delmarva Peninsula, to the giant Perdue processing plants to Maryland fried chicken (which is what we were having for lunch), the 21st century Eastern Shore is all about the chicken. To honor this modern tradition, CLC is releasing a special edition of the CLC Peapod variant that emphasizes the Eastern Shore chicken-raising tradition, rather than the Maine lobster-chasing one. This Spring only, customers can order the CLC Chicken Tender, Special Edition.

Now it would have been easy to just change the name and go with that. All that would have taken is using the word processor's search and replace function on all 1,986 pages (so far) of the manual and we could have made a massive profit for almost no work at all. But that's not the CLC way.

We decided to use this special edition boat to push the limits of boatbuilding technology yet again. So we took our Lighthouse Tender prototypes, dipped them into batter and deep-fried them. It was a lot of developmental work, not to mention physical sacrifices (grease burns and cholesterol levels being chief among them), but we did it. The Chicken Tender has a durable golden crispy coating with a tender inside.

The Chicken Tender has a durable golden crispy coating with a tender inside.

The first challenge was the recipe. Originally we went with the standard batter, but it flaked off when it got wet. We found that substituting wood flour for white flour took care of that. It also enhanced the golden color and raised the fibre content. We then learned to add Cab-o-Sil to increase the durability and crispiness, and to discourage Travis from nibbling on the boats.

Once we had the recipe, we had to work out the application method. After many trials, it turned out that simply rolling it on with a short-nap yellow foam roller was the simplest. We didn't tip it out because the bubbles turned out to enhance the texture and provide flotation.

The actual frying was easier than expected. We were allowed to use the same tank that we float-tested the Peeler Skiff in (thanks Coast Guard). All we did was replace the water with 2,000 gallons of hot peanut oil. We did have to change the filters afterwards.

The results speak for themselves. The sailing qualities were actually enhanced, probably a combination of the texturing resulting in non-turbulent laminar flow, along with the slickness of the residual peanut oil. Speaking of slick and oil, we had a passing scare when we first put the boat into the water and it released a small peanut oil slick. Fortunately, since it was a natural, edible vegetable oil there were no legal or environmental issues.

Finally, in keeping with the Chicken Tender theme, the sails are available in either BBQ or Honey Mustard - both dipping lugs, of course."

The sails are available in either BBQ or Honey Mustard - both dipping lugs, of course.

The CLC Chicken Tender Special Edition can be ordered til midnight (EDT) today only (April 1, 2019). Boats will be fried and delivered in the CLC parking lot at the Open House portion of Okoumefest, May 17th, 2019. Unclaimed boats will be served to the guests with fries and a side salad.

Pricing:
    TBD. Whatever it is, it'll be worth it.
Options:
    Add Old Bay - free
    Tender Bottom seats for the benches - TBD

 


4 replies:

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RE: New Peapod variant

I'll need fries with that!

RE: New Peapod variant

Can I Supersize my order?  I'm still tempted to build a SCAMP bow...

 

RE: New Peapod variant

   Will there be a dipping sauce? 2 part?

RE: New Peapod variant

Bravo! I'll take one.

Can I get it in Buffalo Wings flavor? I plan to sail it on a sea of blue (cheese dressing.) 

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