PT Eleven Nesting Dinghy home page

PT Watercraft PT Eleven, 11ft Nesting Dinghy is unique, efficient, functional, modern & attractive.

 

copyright Port Townsend Watercraft

All About Nestingabout_nesting.html
Featured Videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsWtDD_pl6o
Storage space not an issue where you live? 

Consider the Non-Nesting version;
The PT SPEAR
Lower investment, just as much fun!PT11_Spear.html

About the PT11 Kit
And How to buy onebuy_a_pt11.html
What is the 
PT 11?
Click here to See a description and links to more information.PT11Description.html
SPECSPT11Description.html
F.A.Q.http://ptwatercraft.com/blog/?page_id=344
VideosPT11_Videos.html
REVIEWSReviews.html
DESCRIPTIONPT11Description.html
BUILDERSBuilder_Center.html
ORDERINGOrdering_from_PTW.html
Pricebuy_a_pt11.html
Kit slideshowPT11kit_photos.html
Assembly Demohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pScrmyKG2ns&list=UUVkWkVo0rpJ1I3xgJjmYUFQ&index=9
Connective Hardwarehttp://ptwatercraft.com/blog/?p=495
Nested SPECSabout_nesting.html
USCG labelabout_nesting.html
OPTIONS for the PT11 kit 
& sailing OPTIONSPT11_Options.html
Builder CenterBuilder_Center.html
What about Oars?Oars_Links.html

Can’t find a page?

Try the compass.

OrderingOrdering_from_PTW.html
Hatches & HardwareHatches_and_Hardware.html
Specials +Specials_and_Gifts.html
PT SPEARPT11_Spear.html
PT 11
See the builder’s manual introductionhttp://www.ptwatercraft.com/PT11_2014_manual_intro.pdf
Each picture will take you to a page. The tabs tell you the main topics on that page, or you can click a tab to go to the labeled page. The Bird on most pages will bring you back to this page. 
Central links are at the top and bottom of each page.

What features make this boat special? 

The ability to assemble and disassemble the boat in seconds, in the water or out of the water.

The unmatched strength of the assembled boat, a challenge in nesting dinghy design.

The rowing performance of our boats is quite amazing. One was used in a 70 mile endurance race last year, finishing in the top third of a 120 boat fleet in under 20 hours, surprising for an 11 foot dinghy. An outboard motor is quite unnecessary when using the boat as a tender.

The sailing performance is very good. The stock foils (machined daggerboard and kick-up rudder) help the boat sail upwind like a 12 meter. The rig is the lightest and easiest to use dinghy rig on the market. The two-piece carbon mast and boom, sail, and all rigging weigh just 10 1/2 pounds, store in a small bag, and assembles in minutes, making a quick sail in a new anchorage easily done. 

Other prominent features include a large truly watertight storage area, sealed floatation tanks fore & aft, and a very dependable daggerboard trunk cap that allows towing in rough water and at high speeds. Two rowing stations and multiple foot brace positions allow keeping level trim with multiple passengers and allow rowers of different heights. 

These qualities are combined with many other well-thought-out features, some that make construction easier and many that make the boat easier to use, lighter, and more efficient. 

What do we not like about the PT 11? It’s complex. While we have not over-engineered this boat and we continually work on making the build simpler, a really good nesting dinghy, especially one that could last forever, requires complexity. Much of that complexity is on our end. We manufacture many custom parts for the boat and we aren’t shy about expensive alternatives.  

The fact that we have sold so many kits for the PT 11 with almost no advertising says a lot.

Builders of the 11 see the value of the kit, the manual, and the finished product. Resale values of well built PT 11’s also point to a well conceived product.

Is the PT 11 for you? Are you right for the PT11? What are our high standards about? See below...

Is the PT 11 for you? If you are attracted to the boat and it fits your needs, then maybe. Are you right for the PT11? Probably, if the next sentences work for you.

-Yes- If you want the performance that our kits offer and aren’t afraid to put in the effort and time required, if you look forward to a good winter or summer project, and are willing to carefully follow a very detailed building manual. -

Building a boat can be a very satisfying and rewarding experience; an experience that is increasingly missing in modern times. We ask a lot of our builders, but they get a lot in return. They get the experience, a new set of skills, and in the end, they get a very versatile boat. 

Because we have very high standards for what we want in a boat, we start with the best materials:

We hand pick through units of high grade Okoume plywood to find the best looking and flattest panels of five different thicknesses of plywood. This doesn’t mean it’s always perfect, but we choose the best available and it’s a wonderful material for this type of boat. Most of the plywood parts are CNC machined, but many of them are post-machined to bevel and round edges where appropriate. The lumber parts kit (foredeck stringers, glue cleats and reinforcements) are machined from high-grade Sitka Spruce. The foot braces, oarlock riser blocks, and back seat cleats are machined to a ready-to-finish level from Sapele mahogany.

We supply the best glass cloth of 3 different weights to protect and reinforce, while keeping the boat as light as possible. 

Carbon fiber alignment clips are molded “in house” and the Delrin goosenecks, hatch turndogs, and special washers are machined locally in Port Townsend. 

The foils are CNC machined from carefully selected Okoume plywood (2 layers of 12 mm Vacuum bagged together on a “flat table”) to make NACA section foils of almost 1” thick. For the weight and performance offered by these foils, they are relatively very affordable and not difficult to finish. 

The machined 316 stainless connective hardware is machined by an expert local family owned, third generation machine shop. This hardware constitutes a large part of the value of the kit and is continually fine-tuned. We are extremely lucky to have some very smart friends. 

The masts and booms are made in state by ICE, a maker of the highest quality carbon fiber tubes on the planet. The two-part mast and boom (almost 23 lineal feet of tapered custom carbon tubes) weigh just 6.7 lbs and that includes all the hardware and running rigging on the boom (5 Harken blocks, 2 snap hooks, 1 s-hook, 7 eye straps, 1 cleat, 37 feet of running rigging, and a gooseneck fitting. ICe also now makes the custom fiberglass mast sockets.

Many other parts and pieces are produced in our shop or locally. Besides the plywood, which is made in France, just about everything in one of our kits is made in the US.  

The most valuable single piece of the kit is the building manual. We don’t encourage people without hand tool experience to build our boats, but the manual allows someone with no epoxy or boatbuilding experience to build a really good boat. 

We completed eight PT 11s, built to improve the manual and fine-tune the kits. We do this so that our builders can get the most value, pleasure, and longevity from their boats. With every update, the kits and the manuals have gotten better. 

It has been just the two of us running PT Watercraft, which means we can offer very good quality control and economy. Now with CLC doing the heavy lifting, we can focus on the fussy parts that we supply to them and the complete sailing rigs. WA residents can ask about picking up their sailing rig in Port Townsend.

We have also been working on a video series with Off Center Harbor, showing the more technical parts of building a PT 11. These video’s will be available free to our builders.

We hope builders will follow the blog for important updates. Also see our Builders page for printables and suggestions.

(This explanation begins on the Welcome page)

PT Watercraft offers kits for new and unique boat designs that are efficient, functional, modern & attractive.

Our focus is on creating boats that answer the needs of serious cruisers, weekend camp cruisers and environmentally conscious boaters, sail and motor. Featuring: the fuel efficient 18.5ft center console , PT Skiff, Russell Brown’s modern performance nesting dinghy series, carbon marine hardware, water tight hatch kits, hatch toggles or ‘turn dogs’, adjustable wind shields, dinghy rigs, sails, dinghy foil kits, original PTW stainless steel connective hardware, stitch & glue and epoxy instructional books, etc...

R&D by Russell J. Brown with various design collaborations with Paul Bieker and Eric Jolley of Bieker Boats, Jim Franken of Franken Design, Brandon Davis of Turn Point Design, Paul Zeusche of Antalya Inc., Sean Rankins of NW Sails. Special thanks to our honorary consultants, John Marples, Dick Newick, Jim Brown, Brian Clark, Tom George, Sandy Goodall, John Harris, Alex Spear, Tim Nolan, Meade Gougeon, Ted Pike, Chris Grace. Wood for our kits comes from Edensaw in Port Townsend, WA. Our preferred epoxy is WEST SYSTEM  from Gougeon Brothers. Lots of great stuff we use comes from FISHERIES SUPPLY in Seattle. Publicity thanks to Wooden Boat, Professional Boat Builder, Small Craft Advisor, Epoxy Works, and our customers!..+


Port Townsend Watercraft is excited to collaborate with Chesapeake Light Craft to resume production of the PT 11. https://www.clcboats.com/pt11https://www.clcboats.com/pt11https://www.clcboats.com/pt11shapeimage_37_link_0shapeimage_37_link_1