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. :)

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.

We are at the Festival. We have a booth next to the presentation stand out on the point. The PT Skiff is in the water at the dock. We hope some of you can make it over the weekend!  We will be accepting orders for both kits for shipping in October. The PT Eleven will be having a few file adjustments and these need to be reflected in the manual.

I will post a couple of sailing pictures with the new rig up. We just got one chance to try it out yesterday. Worked great! ptwatercraft.comptwatercraft.comAlso there is all new info on the website. Still some blank spots but it will be filling in soon. Cheers to all..

As Promised:

These measurements were taken with the nested package laying on a flat table.

Seat tongue extends 2” past the 70” package length at the height shown.
Therefore;
Maximum package = 6ft x 4ft 2”  (with bumper)  20” height at bow/stern,  17” height at bulkheads.
It fits neatly with gate closed into the 6ft bed of our Toyota truck. It also fits into the back of a Toyota 4Runner.Ptwatercraft.comptwatercraft.comptwatercraft.comptwatercraft.com

Monday August 15th, we put the new PT Eleven in the water for the first time. The launch committee included the major contributors to the development of the boat. ptwatercraft.comEveryone took a turn rowing the boat. Here are a few of the pictures from the day.. ptwatercraft.comptwatercraft.comptwatercraft.comptwatercraft.comSince we have been working on safe loading calculations that have come out to the odd number of 3.9 people or 518.78 LBS, we got 4 of these guys to get into the dinghy and take a row. Each of them admitted to weighing 180LBS and possibly more so we casually demonstrate here where the boat sits with at least 720LBS and rowing at a fair clip.  This demonstration was not about safety but simply to see how much free-board would be left. We could have tried to load the boat to near submersion but that will be a test for another day.ptwatercraft.comEveryone present was thrilled with the boat, “a delightful boat to row..”  and impressed with the ease with which it assembled and disassembled.
As a footnote to the day...We brought the boat back to our shop where Russell pulled it out of the back of our Toyota truck and rinsed off the 2 halves. We had friends visiting from Canada and while Russell was deep in conversation with them, I jumped into the truck to run an urgent errand. I had seen the boat in the shop. In fact, I had seen the aft half on its stand, and felt confident to back the truck out. Confident, that is until I heard a loud 'pop!'.  My heart stopped and thankfully I had the presence of mind to stop the truck. Completely out of my field of vision, near the front right wheel, the forward half of the boat had been on the ground. I had rolled onto the corner of it with the front wheel of the truck. Distraught, I ran into the shop for Russell. We freed the boat and Russell studied the damage. He tells me today that it is pretty amazing that it was not worse. A little epoxy and a touch up on the paint completed the repair but he could see by the tire track that a great deal of weight had been applied to the hull and that it had withstood it. The loud ‘pop’, was the sound of the corner of the gunwhale giving way.

I share this embarrassing tale because...well...because this kind of thing happens sometimes and while I still feel pretty bad about not making sure the entire boat was inside the shop,  I count our good fortune that it was not worse.  We came very close to not having a boat for the upcoming festival!