On June 30th, Cassandra  McDermott and 10 year old Milo arrived to pick up their PT 11 kit. 'Cassie' is a young woman who delivers boats, does a lot of sailing, boat finishing, refinishing, and polishing. I suspect she is very good at it, too.
Meeting Cassie and Milo (who also loves to sail) was a real pleasure. It was particularly exciting to have a pre-teen totally into building a PT 11 and that a woman was to be the primary builder. It often feels like building boats is perceived as 'such a guy thing' and I like to encourage more female involvement with the kits.

Besides the distinction for Cassie & Milo as the first ‘mom & pre-teen’ team so far to build one of our kits, they did it in record time.
On August 3rd, barely a month after picking up the kit, we received an email, and I quote, “Well we launched last week! I will send you some pictures soon....We are having a blast. She is a great boat!” Then she sent this great photo of Milo in the boat, with it’s shiny blue hull, (in honor of the SEA HAWKS)... Russell and I were very impressed!! 😉

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Milo in his PT 11

Cassie totally dedicated herself to the project, including setting her alarm clock for 3AM to make a fill coat. They really familiarized themselves with the manual so that while waiting for one thing to cure, they knew what they could begin to prepare and have ready for steps later on. Warm summer weather helped while they had several simultaneously curing parts. This consolidated a lot of the 'waiting-for-cure' time inherent in wood/epoxy boat building."The build went really well. We made a few mistakes-nothing structural and nothing we couldn't fix," she told me.

They also had a strong motivation. Milo was going back to school at the end of the Summer and Cassie wanted to be sure he had plenty of time to sail in his new boat before then. Milo wrote us a letter that deserves a frame in our shop. ptwatercraft.comPhotos & captions following, (compliments of Cassie and Milo), tell much of the story best.

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And the sanding hasn't even begun yet!
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I drill you twist.
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Even Dad sanded a bit with Wilson ever ready on the vacuum.
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Testing the strength of our PPE.
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Remember all those twists? Time to snip.
ptwatercraft.com photo by Cassandra McDermott
So there might be a few ice cream finger prints.

PTWATERCRAFT photo by Cassandra Mc Dermott

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First sail day.
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Second sail day.
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Milo taking his teacher and friend out for a sail on Palisades Lake in Wyoming.

Building any kit can take weeks, months or years depending on a person’s working habits and available time. We recommend taking your time and enjoying yourself. Our builders have expressed real pleasure in the project and that is as much a part of it as the end result.  The fact that Cassie met her self imposed and pretty short deadline AND had a great time is a testament to her skill and an inspiration for women boat builders! Hats off to you, Cassie and Milo!!

See some recent feedback from our builder's about our kits:

Robert in MA: It is a fantastic kit, and I thoroughly enjoyed the building project. Honestly, I felt a little intellectually lazy doing the build. Usually there are multiple details that have to be thought through, improvised, fleshed out, etc. Not with the PT11. You did all the thinking for me and didn't leave out anything. I didn't mind being lazy for a change. :)  I can't think of a single thing to improve in the kit or manual. I can't wait to start rowing and sailing. August 2014

Simon in New Zealand: I didn't really realize how much of a delight to build she's been until the bumper had been stuck on and I was a little disappointed that there wasn't anything left to do except go sailing.