After 8500 miles, many weeks on the road with the PT Skiff and meeting so many and yet not all of you, we are back at work in Port Townsend. We will highlight the trip on our blog soon. The boat logged some good sea miles, some in extreme conditions and performed very well. Lots of people took the wheel, from friends and their children, to designers, boat builders and critics, and all clearly enjoyed the boat and expressed very positive opinions and reviews.
We spent 3 days in Brooklyn Maine at the Wooden Boat Magazine headquarters and Aaron Porter has posted a review of our boat alongside Graham Byrnes’ “Marrissa”.
See http://proboat.com/design-challengers.html
While we were away, the first kit sold was completed and launched in Seattle. See photos of ‘PIKA’ on the photo album page of our site. The builder also wrote on the forum. 25HP was used on this boat with impressive results.
We would have liked to make several other stops along the way but we simply ran out of time. We hope we will see many of you at the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend in September.
We are currently accepting orders for kits to be cut in August. The sooner the better for getting your order confirmed, as knowing our quantities will expedite shipping.
July 6th...Geee...a lot has happened since we last posted. This trip has been a whirlwind of driving, arriving, busy busy, camp and drive again.. The Wooden Boat Show in Mystic was a lot of fun and we want to thank everyone for their enthusiasm about the PT Skiff.
In Mystic CT
Everyone we met was super nice and we really enjoyed it. We have had the boat in the water a few times; on the Chesapeake in Virginia, in Rhode Island,
Headed for Block Island from Point Judith, RIEn-route to Newport from Block Island
Buzzard's Bay and Martha's Vinyard, Rockland, Camden and now Brooklin, Maine. All in all we have had some great outings from calm to steep 6 footers and 25knots...(you guessed it...Buzzard's Bay...) I will keep adding pictures soon.
Cheers.
A few pictures along the way...
The PT Skiff in Virginia City MontanaThe PT Skiff in MontanaYellowstone Park in June
Yellowstone Lake was still icy and thus closed to boating so we continued on to the east coast.
We are on the road to the east coast and somehow these photos did not upload right on the website so I am posting them here. When we get back I will be able to make such updates from the main computer. Here is the windshield photo and a photo of a hatch with the watertight gasket and custom machined turn-dogs installed. These photos relate to the kit details page linked from the PT Skiff page of the website (or click on the photo here in) and are options available in addition to the base kit. Thank you for your patience! Best to all, Ashlyn & Russell.
Plexiglass windshield with adjustable height on a welded stainless bar.Installed watertight hatch
Our skiff is almost complete!
We are waiting on the new adjustable height windshield & mount, but besides that we only need to install the motor and cables and a few other small things.
We were pulled off skiff building for a good part of the spring, filling orders for our other business, PT Foils, but now we are full speed finishing our skiff and getting ready for a cross country tour. We are going to the Wooden Boat show in Mystic, Connecticut ( http://www.thewoodenboatshow.com/ ) in late June and then touring New England. E-mail us if you want to see the boat.
We have also scheduled having our boat tested by the Coast Guard at their testing facility in Maryland. This testing involves filling the boat with water and testing for flotation and stability when flooded, among other things. The testing we are doing is voluntary but seems important on a boat we are promoting for it’s seaworthiness.
There are many details on the skiff since the last blog post, but soon it will be out of the shop and we will be able to take good photographs. Our shop has 7’ ceilings and while it is easy to heat, the light for photos is not so good.
In other news, we just sold a kit to Tim Smyth. Tim was one of the two lead builders of the BMW Oracle trimaran that just won the America’s cup. Tim’s
P T Skiff kit is on it’s way to New Zealand.
We weighed our boat recently. 340 pounds without the engine and some other things.
This is about the same as the first prototype.
We chose the same engine that the first prototype had, a Yamaha 20.
Our first kit buyer, J. Brandt chose the Evinrude E-TEC 25. Comparing performance will be very interesting.
Following are a few photos of the boat as it looks right now.
Following are pictures of the hull glassed and the final gloss coat finished. We are ready to paint the hull this week.
Skeg detail
FEBRUARY 18, 2010
A bunch of good friends showed up to turn the skiff over. Thank you!
February 14th, 2010
Happy Valentines Day World.
Progress as of today.. All inside structure and finish work is complete. We are ready to turn the boat over and glass the bottom.
PT Skiff prototype 2 Feb. 13, 2010
PT Skiff prototype 2
Inside structure and finish work complete
January 25th, 2010!
I know! I know! I am getting slack with blog posting! Well, dang... It is not like there hasn't been a whole lot happening!
Today I am posting a shot of the CNC cutting that happened on the 15th and a couple of shots of the recent final coating of the inside of the PT SKIFF. We have decided to keep it clear coated as this boat is our showpiece and people have really loved the clear finish. Further, the construction techniques are clearly visible and it helps people get a good picture of how the boat went together. So here goes...
Turn Point Designs in Port Townsend cutting a kit on the 5 axis CNC macine.Russell tipping the final coat of epoxy.The inside is completely coated now. Next we will finish the side decks and upper coamings, turn the boat over and finish the outside.
Paste this YouTube link into your address bar to see a brief clip of the coating.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGyaVfV-yeo
JANUARY 1st, 2010!
Happy 2010 to all! We are back online again ...
Combings being installed for hatches in middle and forward seats.
gluedfinshed combing on the forward seat.Water tank lid, console & driver's seat, forward sole in...
All 3 seat tops ready for final installation. Almost all surfaces have been glassed and are ready for the final gloss coat of epoxy.
Foredeck framing & foredeck are installed next with the boat upright in the cradle.
Cheers for now...AE
DECEMBER 28th, 2009
HOPE EVERYONE HAS ENJOYED THIS LAST WEEK! I know we have not updated recently but that does not mean progress has not been made between entertaining friends and family and being entertained. We will be uploading new photos shortly of the console and drivers seat in and the forward floor in and more. Wishing all a HAPPY NEW YEAR and may 2010 be a positive year for you!
DECEMBER 20, 2009
Inside of the water ballast tank and under the grates finished.
DECEMBER 8, 2009
This past week we finished glassing the chines and have been making the patterns for, and cutting the lumber parts for this boat and at least 5 more kits. Pictured below are the glue-cleats placed near their positions.
glue-cleat mock up
DECEMBER 2nd, 2009
Filleting and taping the chines..
All inside structure gets welded together with fillets. This goes very quickly with our "patented" technique.Filleted...Taping the chines. A blank of fiberglass is wet out on plastic, cut into strips & applied like this.Peel ply goes over the glass.
NOVEMBER 24th
Gluing down side-deckstipping on edge for injecting chine seams with epoxyExtension screwed to cradle that allows the boat to stand on edge at a good height for finishing insideReady for fillets and chine taping
NOVEMBER 23
New pictures and more to come.
Side decks trial fit
NOVEMBER 16th,
Progress is being made! The next set of pictures shows aligning the stem, topside panels and sheer clamps, transom inwhales and side decks prep.
This photo taken whe aligning and gluing the stem. Note the white string.This photo and the next show topside panels and sheer clamps. The funny looking thing on the transom is a temporary former.
Side decks and combings being pre-finishedTransom inwhale being glued up.
Updates are happening weekly so please keep checking. We could easily be twice as far but the manual is specific and comprehensive and all will no doubt agree, worth the time taken to create it. Cheers..AE
November 10th
Over the last couple of weeks, we have made a lot of progress even though we are working on the builder’s manual more than the boat.
Pre-finishing parts is a large part of the job in the beginning of building this boat. This stage goes really fast on the bench and means very little finish work later.
The assembly goes really quickly thanks to the tongues and slots. Here are some pictures of where we are to date and we will post more in the next few days.
Fill coating hull panelsHull panels assembled and their inside surfaces glassed and coated.Frames 1 thru 10 pre-glassed or double coatedBeginning of hull assembly in cradleAll these parts fit in their designated locations with tongues and slots in a very short amount of time3rd panel in place. Cradle legs here are shortened after all parts are locked in place with a thin bead of epoxy in all jointsAnother view...
November 1st.
Pre-finishing parts is done and the cradles are ready. This first week of November will see the skiff get wired together.We have been able to refine much of the building technique with this skiff so that the manual reads better and your building experience will be easier.
Pre-finishing is the first part of building the PT Skiff.
Building has begun. See here all the ply parts cut.
117 parts, 12 sheets of plywood and they all fit so far...
