I walked into the shop yesterday to see stacks of PT Eleven kits! Our first run finally cut. In the process of making this boat the best it can be and still buildable even for amateurs, it turns out that there are 5 different thicknesses of ply wood and some parts are cut in 3D, such as the stems. ( pictured fanned out..Russell did that.. :) )

It brings to point why building the PT 11 from plans would not be practical. The boat is mostly from 6mm plywood but there are various parts from 12mm, 15mm, 18mm and 24mm. Nobody would want to buy a whole sheet of each of those just to use a small part of them. There would be some costly waste involved. I do not want to say that there will never be plans or patterns for our kits but I should say that our priority is to get a line of our dinghies available as kits first and foremost.  We have a few years of work on our our agenda to accomplish just that.

The first run of kits will answer many questions. The pictured stacks represent several base kits currently on order. There are lots of other things that will go into the boxes before delivery. It is a bit of an adrenalin rush and as more things arrive, and the boxes get packed, we will start breathing again and be able to review lessons learned.  :)

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For those choosing to make their PT Eleven with the sailing option, we created a watertight cap for the dagger board trunk.
We chose G10 - Garolite in order to have a strong and stiff cap that would be as thin as possible (1/8th inch) so we could keep the profile very low and still be water tight. The dagger board trunk opening is close to the seat and the rower would actually sit over it with 2  people in the boat. Also, having a good lid is important if you would want to tow the boat.

The optional kit consists of a machined G10 Garolite cap with gasket groove & stiffener groove, gasket, mahogany stiffener, machined Garolite spacers,  plastic washer, plastic tether washer, tether string, turn-dogs,  and fasteners.

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PT 11 Daggerboard Cap kit

Below you can see the cap installed.

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Installed Dagger Board Cap

When sailing with the dagger board down, the turn-dogs also serve to keep the board down by resistance on the aft end and looping the string over the forward one. :)

I finally pieced together some clips of our brief sailing opportunity in the San Juans. The breeze just did not want to pick up but it was still a lot of fun. The video is on our video's page and on our ptwatercraft channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXVLKDag95Q&feature=player_profilepage

One of these days we will have a waterproof camera and by then I might be a little better at taking video! Cheers..

We have returned from our trip to BC feeling generally refreshed. Our main goal of getting good video of the nesting dinghy was largely thwarted by successive gales and torrential rains! However, we did get a few light winds clips on our last day in the San Juans and we had some time on our trip to simply chill.  Today I will post a few photos. It will take me a bit longer to sort through the video clips and put something together. One thing was for certain on this trip; wherever we went, the PT Eleven attracted enthusiastic interest. This is very exciting for us!
For those of you who have ordered your kits already, our CNC shop is scheduling a session for the plywood parts, and the  connective hardware, gaskets, and other stuff are on order to complete the packages.  Russell is working on  the adjustments to the manual. More updates to come soon! ptwatercraft.comThe PT Eleven nested on the trampoline of Jzerro ptwatercraft.comVito Dumas sailed with us for most of the trip to Desolation sound. ptwatercraft.comRussell and I having a leisurely sail. ptwatercraft.comA row around the bay with Peter. ptwatercraft.comAlex, an avid “SUP (stand up) board guy” sailing the PT Eleven. ptwatercraft.comWatmo Bay.

 

 

Hello All,    Before I update the blog with any news, I would like to invite everyone interested in the nesting dinghy series from PT Watercraft, to take a moment and fill out our questionnaire.  Your input is our best guide for certain developmental decisions along the way.  Many thanks!  Click here to go to the questionnaire.