New! From Chesapeake Light Craft: Build-Your-Own Shipping Pallet!
At CLC we've built every kind of boat, from half-models to Viking ships. We've cut parts for airplanes, computer desks, surgical face shields, and crash-test dummies.
Now we've turned our creative energies towards a commonplace but little-appreciated appurtenance of daily life: the humble shipping pallet.
"Every single day, everything you touch probably spent time on a transit platform," says designer John C. Harris, who prefers to use the more formal term for a pallet. "And transit platforms offer all of the engineering challenges faced by boat designers. They're wooden, they need to be very strong but reasonably light, and they need to be durable."
But something has been lost in the ubiquity of shipping pallets, says Harris. "We ask a lot of these things, but we take them for granted. And have you ever tried to find one when you needed it?"
The solution is CLC's new build-your-own pallet kit. ("It's 'transit platform,'" Harris insists.) It's a pallet that is strong, light—and beautiful, as well. Many builders will choose to varnish their mahogany-and-cypress transit platforms.
Harris is proud of how attractive CLC's pallets look, but he says that's not the most important feature. "Sure, think of how much nicer loading docks will look if there are fifty of the CLC transit platforms stacked up there. But the real game-changer is the weight savings, something we know a thing or two about at Chesapeake Light Craft."
Harris has calculated that a truck loaded with freight on the CLC-designed pallets could be a thousand pounds lighter, save thousands of dollars in fuel, and best of all, eliminate something like five tons of greenhouse gas emissions during a 24-hour truck delivery.
The kit includes mahogany and cypress slats and cypress intercostals, as well as stainless steel fasteners. Builders may choose to coat their transit platform in epoxy for additional durability, and most will choose a durable varnish finish to show off the nice wood.
"It's a win on every front," says Harris. "We take this common, everyday object and make it beautiful. Then we make it light and practical and good for the Earth at the same time."
Build-Your-Own-Pallet Kits begin shipping on April 1st, 2024.
New! From Chesapeake Light Craft: Build-Your-Own Shipping Pallet!
