Leo, of Sampson Boat Co / Tally Ho rebuild project, has featured the PT 11 prominently in one of his excellently produced videos. We are a little floored by the feature and yes, very grateful. He surely would not have made such a great video (we think all of his videos are great) if he wasn't happy with his PT 11 and that makes us happy indeed. Thank you Leo!

PT Watercraft maintains an informational website about the PT 11 and the PT Spear and we are available to answer inquiries. Kit orders and kit production is now managed by Chesapeake Light Craft. We still sell our books, various small parts, and serve our pre-CLC customers directly. Sailing Rig production remains in our workshop in Port Townsend.

Leo's video also shows how one person can manage the dinghy from vehicle to beach launch. This is something we got asked about a lot but never managed to film so this is an important addition to the PT 11 videos already online. In case you have not already seen it, click on the image below.

If you are unaware of the Tally Ho videos, we recommend you start from the beginning and subscribe. Leo is a brilliant videographer. This skill greatly compliments his knack for explaining the processes of rebuilding this historic sailboat. Even more valuable in my opinion, is that he is documenting the evolution of learning things as you go that influence how such a project evolves, while showcasing the many skills, tools, materials, and talented people it takes along the way. The videos are  educational, entertaining, and very inspiring.   AEB 😉

LeoPT11Video

As previously mentioned, 2020-21 was largely spent reviewing our production process. Another redesign included the PT 11 foils kit. We took our ideas to Paul Bieker of Bieker Boats for his expertise with foil design. The new foils are thinner, using 18mm Birch plywood instead of 24mm Okoume. The Birch plywood is more dense, chosen for its strength at this thickness and not for it's looks.  The machined birch plywood is not as handsome for clear coating as the Okoume but we are quite pleased with the overall change.

Modifying the foils kits affected many other parts of the kit, so those changes are are reflected in a total rewrite of the foils manual and changes in the boat itself (the daggerboard trunk is narrower, etc).

Machining the daggerboard and rudder from high-grade plywood is a good way to produce very efficient  and relatively light foils. The process is far from easy though. It has taken much trial and error and a very good CNC programmer (Turn Point Design) to come up with the final product. The price of this foils kit reflects quite a lot of machine time for each set.

Left, the Okoume daggerboard blank. Right, the Birch Daggerboard blank
Left, the Okoume daggerboard blank. Right, the Birch Daggerboard blank
PT 11 Rudder before AfterDSC_9001
Rudder blanks using Okoume on the left and Birch on the right.
Fore-shortened image showing the NACA foil shape with lines of tape.
Fore-shortened image showing the NACA foil shape with lines of tape.
PT 11 foils 2022, finished with Interlux Perfection.
PT 11 foils 2022. Painted foils look good!
Demonstrating the in-use position of the daggerboard using the trunk cap turndog over the fiberglass pin as a "hold-down" .
The new daggerboard hold down uses the existing trunk cap turn-dog and a composite "pin" that is bonded into the dagerboard.
The complete 2021 PT 11 foils kit as sold by Chesapeake Light Craft.
The complete 2022 PT 11 foils kit as sold by Chesapeake Light Craft.

The PT 11 sailing rig is one of our creations that we are quite proud of. The carbon tubes are engineered specifically for this rig and manufactured in Washington at Innovative Composites Engineering. ICElogoIt is fun for us to imagine our tubes along side Space-X & NASA tubes, and among top name windsurfer and paddle boarding tubes. Mostly we are proud that this quick-to-set-up rig, with sail and all hardware & rigging, weighs a scant 10.5 LBS.

Our boom attaches to the mast with a custom gooseneck. For years we have made these goosenecks out of vacuum bagged carbon & epoxy in a multi step process that included a lot of carbon dust, finishing, tapping, assembling, and hand stitching tubular webbing onto the forks for a soft contact point on the mast. OrigGooseneck-smallDSCN0643After hundreds of these, there just had to be a  better way.

In 2021, as we sought to offset increasing costs in general and reduce labor where we could, one of the things we did was redesign our gooseneck. After years of trying to think of a better way, Russell began sketching out a new design based on using 1/2" Delrin plate and CNC router technology.

The resulting gooseneck is clean, practical, stronger, and most importantly, much less labor to finish and install. The new goosenecks are installed by pouring epoxy around them. A tight fitting foam plug traps the epoxy. Speaking of tight fitting foam plugs; there are 7 plugs in the 3 tubes that these rigs are made from, 5 of them custom made of different sizes from dense rigid foam. Why? To keep them from filling with water and sinking of course. Why do we need 7 plugs to plug both ends of 3 tubes? The seventh plug is a secret. 😉

The new gooseneck, right to left: blank, blank with edges rounded, installed in the boom.
The new gooseneck, right to left: CNC machined blank, post-CNC blank drilled & edges rounded, gooseneck installed in the boom.

PT 11 sailing rigs are still produced by Russell and drop-shipped from Port Townsend. They can be purchased through Chesapeake Light Craft. Customers who purchased their PT 11 kits from PT Watercraft pre-2021 should contact us directly regarding PT 11 options. We have experienced periodic delays so lead times vary.

Happy Sailing! ...AEB 😉

If you don't receive Professional BoatBuilder Magazine, we recommend that you go to their site and sign up. The magazine has always been free for industry professionals but if you can donate to keep their operations running smoothly in this digital world, that would be great too. RBTaskSheetIntro

Last year, Russell was asked to write about epoxy and the editors decided to turn it into one of their featured Task Sheet formats. Russell is not comfortable in a classroom setting but he has received praise for his technical writing that has given many seasoned boat builders clarity and refinement on the subject of working with epoxy. Proboat has generously given us permission to post the task sheet here in a downloadable PDF.

RBtasksheet-HEADERTaskSheet194-FINAL

PT 11 kits will become available this year if all goes as planned. The hiccups include supply chain issues and rising shipping and material costs. We are making forward progress.

We have been working with a well established kit company who long mentored our fledgling business and really wants to produce our kits. We will continue to manufacture and supply them with specific parts that make our kits unique.
This has been an incredibly interesting and challenging task to put our process into a transferable format. We are ‘creatives’, not ‘business managers’ persay. That we have managed, is nothing short of amazing to me as I fill in lengthy spreadsheets with suppliers, part numbers, current pricing, how many of what per kit, etc. Everything needed updated numbers. This rather daunting assignment has simply taken time to accomplish as Russell continues to make large runs of certain parts that get stocked in advance, to determine how those parts should be priced.
We have redesigned our rudder and daggerboard with help from very skilled friends. The new foils are thinner (18mm), denser, and slicker. The birch plywood is not as handsome for clear coating as the Okoume but we are pretty pleased with the overall change. Modifying the foils kits affected several other parts of the kit, so those changes are being made as well as a total rewrite of the foils manual.
We are working on a boomless rig for the PT 11. Why? Besides greater simplicity of set up and even lighter weight, a large portion of the cost and labor in our current sailing rig is in the boom. We have asked our favorite sail designers to work on this but getting a prototype is one of the supply chain hiccups. We know there will be trade-offs. It is the only way we see being able to keep producing sailing rigs that we would want to use ourselves.
With the retirement of our connective hardware machinist at the end of 2019, early inquiries at machine shops nationwide were not encouraging and we will not take this overseas. We discovered, however, that Port Townsend has a first class, family owned and operated machine shop. Truth be told, the initial quote took time to digest but we considered quantity, precision, and other local advantages. We just picked up the first run and the parts are excellent.

Kit pricing is to be determined but we expect minimal change. Our efforts to simplify parts of production are also intended to offset increased costs in other areas aiming to stabilize cost to the builder.

We expect to announce kit availability later this Summer. The details of ordering will be explained in the next update.

I continue to add names to a list of seriously interested builders. Everyone on that list will receive an email update before this blog. I do this because some of you have been waiting a year for news of kit production continuing. It is all of you on that list especially, whom I wish to thank for your patience and encouragement. It is deeply appreciated. We are excited about finding a pathway forward.
First in production will be the PT 11 Nesting Dinghy and second, the PT Spear. We are not 'there' just yet and we totally understand if you find or have found a different project to work on.

Thank you again,
Ashlyn Brown

P.S.
The PT Skiff is not in our hands at this time. There is no manual that addresses design changes. The designers may have some information for experienced builders but we will not be offering tech support for that project for the time being.

Customers launched new boats in 2020 and I am happy to share photos and comments we have received.

Klaas-BiketrailerPT11
Bicycle trailer!

"Russell & Ashlyn   I wanted to let you know that we finally finished our PT11 dinghy.   And although we haven’t sailed it yet in warm water, we have tested it out in CO.  My wife has proclaimed rowing it is “oargasmic”.  So I am very happy to have built it, and thankful to you for such an awesome design, kit and instructions. " JB

B.AlexanderPT11_1309
With an EP Carry 'outboard'
 
R-SchipIMG_2484
"Back in the late 60's, Tim Buckley put out a delightful album titled "Happy/Sad". That somewhat describes my state of mind these days: I'm very happy to have completed my PT-11 and beyond happy at how exquisitely it rows and sails. But I'm also sad at not having more shop time and the learning that came with its building. In all my years of construction and car restoration, I have never had a project which I enjoyed as much (except sanding the fillets). So I want to express my appreciation to the two of you for the design, support, and unbelievably complete construction manual." RS
JSAMUELS_512b27b3e3_ojSamuels_02c7c12215_o (1)
johnMottlNZimage002-1
Garland Skiff001-3
Nick pt1180220_9947
PeterMacNZPT11-1GUCKbackseat_1750
SOUTHWELL_5923
"As you can see, my maiden voyage was a row with my wife- then I went out sailing on my own. I hadn't built the bailer bungee, so the bailer was in one of the compartments, tied in with a long line. Needless to say I capsized and couldn't get to it, but since I was pretty close to shore I discovered that the Spear sails pretty decently fully swamped. I tipped out the water on the beach and then had a great sail. Back on the beach a crowd was formed to see the nut sailing in November in Nantucket, but as soon as they saw the interior the questions started- what kind of wood is that? What kind of varnish did you use to get that awesome finish (er, well, none yet)." DS

IMG_1066SirIsaacSM

foggy sailboat scene
fog and smoke in the San Juan Islands September 2020
social distancing on the water in a PT 11 nesting dinghy and a PT Spear.
social distancing on the water in a PT 11 nesting dinghy and a PT Spear.
SamStittPT11rd
Raptor deck
PT11 in Pacific atoll
A PT 11 touring the Pacific
Sighting-marblehead_0357
A "sighting" in Rhode Island

PT11DickMcCurdy_9270 Southwell-spear5829

 

rileybowlift saade-interior

Seadeck
Seadeck

PT11-Vito-tow

ROLLING PERFECTION
Recently we did a rather large paint job where the bubbles left by the roller refused to pop and the result was a very pock-marked finish that took a distressing amount of sanding to make smooth again.
Why did this happen? At first we weren’t sure, but now we feel the need to bring up two possible causes for paint-job disasters to be avoided.

Two things we learned are: The reactor (the smaller can) has a two year shelf life from date of manufacture. ptwatercraft.comWhile I’m sure I have successfully used paint that was older than that, if the reactor starts to thicken, don’t try to use it. There is a code on the bottom of the can, but you’ll have to call the phone # on the side of the can to get them to tell you what it means. Apparently Interlux will not provide the reactor separately.
The other thing we are learning is that over-thinning can also cause the bubbles not to pop. It seems like 15 percent thinner (as our book recommends) can be too much at times. We just did a large job thinned at 10 percent that came out amazingly well. While we have had excellent results in the past thinning up to 20 percent, that may have been an anomaly. We will update the Rolling Perfection book to discuss both of the above issues.

Using this paint with the roller only method can be relatively painless, satisfying, come out beautiful, and last forever. or, like any paint, it can all go wrong. There are so many factors that can influence a paint job. Our experience with this paint has been almost all positive, but one bad experience can be a wake-up call, especially for us, as we happen to sell a book on the subject.

Also, we haven’t used all the colors of Perfection and don’t know how that relates to handling and results.ptwatercraft.com
We do know that clear Perfection seems to need to be tipped and we know that some colors cover much better than others: In the whites, Matterhorn, which is darker, covers much better than the whiter whites and Platinum, which is a very light grey, covers even better. With Matterhorn and Platinum it’s possible to do a two-coats only paint job.

 

painting with a respirator

Remember that besides a good respirator, good ventilation is very important. If working indoors, an exhaust fan is key. The fan should be in one end of the shop and an open door or large window at the other end. This paint doesn’t smell for long, but when it’s going off it’s very bad to be around. RB.RP-masthead-float-G32

Retail businesses in WA will have received this recent notice from our Department of Revenue:

Starting July 1, 2019, retailers can no longer make tax exempt sales to nonresidents based on their residence (i.e. Alaska, Oregon, Montana). Instead, consumers residing in qualifying states, US territories or provinces of Canada may request a refund of state sales tax paid from the Department once a year. Please see our Special Notice for more information. https://dor.wa.gov/find-taxes-rates/retail-sales-tax/sales-nonresidents

I can only assume they are trying to accumulate less paperwork by asking eligible customers to keep track and submit only once a year. Thank you for your understanding. AEB 😉

 

PT 11 owners and builders may find these updates valuable. We have made PDF's for easy download and in color!

While we are much happier with the new gasket installation method, the hull gasket is still vulnerable to being yanked out of its notch at the lower corners. Why is this? Because surgical tubing is difficult to adhere to and its also very “grabby”, meaning, hard friction when assembling the boat or otherwise, can pull the gasket out of its notch.  Flushing with fresh water and re gluing is quite easy but we’d really like to test using neoprene for the hull gasket. Neoprene doesn’t have perfect memory but we think it would work fine for the hull gasket; it’s not grabby and it glues well.
For anyone who wants to try the neoprene hull gasket, we will send you 5ft of the stuff in exchange for a full report of its performance. New method for installing or replacing gaskets. PDF ptwatercraft.com

The surgical tubing is still our preference for the hatch and dagger board trunk gaskets.ptwatercraft.com

Installing a handle and bailer for the aft section of the PT 11. PDFptwatercraft.com

Finishing details from Page 290 in the new manual starting with the foot braces section.PDF

The above PDF includes the previous two 'PDF's along with other details from the end portion of the new manual starting at the foot braces section.

Another update we recently posted concerns a tight fit on some dagger boards due to over thick trunk log plywood.  If your dagger board is too tight, see the fix HERE.

😉 AEB