ALL – Page 9 – PT Watercraft Blog

October 7, 2014 by admin in ALL, Events, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting Dinghy Activities

Builder spotlight 9/14

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!! 😉

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. Photos & captions following, (compliments of Cassie and Milo), tell much of the story best.

ptwatercraft.com photo by Cassandra McDermott — So there might be a few ice cream finger prints.

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.

August 1, 2014 by admin in ALL, Events, international, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting Dinghy Activities

‘Sky Rowing’ in the PT 11

On a recent camp cruising excursion to BC, we towed our PT 11 along behind the Water Bug. We did not take the sailing rig but we really enjoyed after dinner rows around the different anchorages. The evening light is so beautiful and on calm, clear summer days, the reflections in the water make you feel like you are looking into another world or floating along on the sky. It was mesmerizing. I put together some clips of these evening rows. I look at my wind swept and bedraggled state with some embarrassment but I had a great time out in the vast wilderness of Desolation Sound. Here is a short video: SKY ROWING

July 29, 2014 by admin in ALL, Events, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting Dinghy Activities, Nesting-PT 11 updates

A bit of ‘white water’ in the PT 11

I admit it..I am a bit of a chicken when it comes to some things. I am not a skier, will not go near a roller coaster, and have never been white water rafting. Russell on the other hand… well let’s just say, in reference to THIS VIDEO, a standing wave, big or small, is as good an excuse as any for a little fun.
In any case, I do love a good adventure. Exploring the Toba Inlet in early July brought us to the mouth of the Brem River. At low tide, the river hit the inlet with some gusto to the delight of several seals, and, Russell. Had I not been holding our one, good, and yet very water sensitive camera, I would have been a lot less concerned. We could have played at this spot a lot longer than we did, although the big and biting black flies were a bit of a menace.
Russell insisted that I keep the sound on the first clip (you probably understand why, much to my chagrin) and I did my ‘darndest’ to be quiet on subsequent takes. Being in the boat was a bit ‘knarly‘ AND really fun. The video hardly does it justice. The PT 11 clearly liked it. So I hope this puts a big smile on your face. The PT11 in the Rapids. Cheers, Ashlyn PTW

July 24, 2014 by admin in ALL, Events, Nesting Dinghy Activities

Summer camp cruising July 2014

I have to sit down and really try to make account of this summer’s first camp cruise. For now, I can offer a couple of videos and notes that can give you the idea. Today’s video is a compilation of clips on the Water Bug.

Since the proa is in the yard, we took our experimental catamaran motor boat up into Canada. It could be compared to a road trip in a Carmanghia convertible … except we probably burned less fuel. 😉 We took camping gear and towed the PT 11 for the better part of more than 400 miles. Our boat of many names.. (Kermit, Grasshopper, Pie in the Sky, Skeeter, Water Bug…) has an old 15 HP Honda outboard and with that, as loaded up as we were, we averaged 2/3 GPH at 11 knots. Under normal load and not towing, Water Bug can cruise at 11 knots at 1/2 GPH, with a cruising speed of 15 knots. We took advantage of waves to surf and shallow waters to explore since this boat is good at both. We discovered that finding spots to both safely moor the boat and camp ashore is not so easy. There are lots of places for kayakers to pull their boats up and camp, or for small boats to anchor and sleep aboard. That did not help us much and we learned a lot for next time.

So I hope you enjoy this video.

Happy camping from a happy camper. Ashlyn 😉 PTW

June 30, 2014 by admin in ALL, Events, international, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting Dinghy Activities, Nesting-PT 11 updates

Launchings for 2nd quarter 2014

I am always happy to show off new boats from our family of builders. I am also so very impressed with the beautiful work everyone has done. Here are some pictures from this Spring.

206 Composites’ Simon Miles, here in Port Townsend, has had 3 PT11 projects in progress. One of these was just launched on June 25th. Simon was a student at the NW School for Wooden Boat Building when Russell taught a class while building the first PT Skiff prototype in 2009. He now runs his own business after working on some very high tech boat building projects including the BMW/Oracle America’s cup boats, sailboat rudders,carbon bicycle wheels, and submarines. simonmiles206 at gmail.com

Hired builder, Simon miles of 206 Composites, in Port Townsend.

Bob in BC launched his PT 11 this Spring.
“Attached a photo of the first nesting, it fit perfectly.

“The paint is not the final, it will eventually be red, but needed the boat some it will be prime grey for a bit. I used System 3 water basted epoxy primer and it worked well and seems very hard, it will be tested this summer.
I did not clear coat the interior and will decide whether to clear coat or paint next year. Added strips of no-skid to the bottom panel by taping a few strips and adding non-skid grit from Interlux to some epoxy . It works very well and is not obvious.
Rows beautifully and my 100 lb wife and I can load it in the truck easily. Should fit will on the nets of my F31 trimaran.”

A PT 11 just launched in Florida. Here showing the first ‘in-water’ assembly practice.

Family fun on a PT 11 in the Bahamas: Seeing these young gents sailing around put a big smile on my face..

ptwatercaft.com — So much more fun than video games!

The latest from SV Skye / PT11 nested on the cabin top of the Lyle Hess 32, Skye.

B and D Boats (banddboats at gmail.com) in Boothbay Maine just finished a PT 11 for a customer.

Another PT 11 just ready for launch in Renton, WA and another in Sonora CA. If we don’t have pictures now, we will share them next time.

Last but not least, a couple of pictures from the launching of our new PT11 /2014.

June 30, 2014 by admin in ALL, instructional, Nesting-PT11 Construction, PT Skiff Construction

Production notes

Growing Pains

Things have come a long way since we first started producing kits. We have put a lot of effort into making production more efficient and timely. The current kits contain parts that require less fitting and fiddling. We have refined the kit, and the manual.
One thing we have maintained is the stance that a really good nesting dinghy is a complex boat and the PT 11 is a really good nesting dinghy. In order to offer it as a kit that even an amateur can build, we have had to take the idea of ‘kit’ to a new level. Some have asked why our kits are more expensive than the average kit boat of comparable size. Others who have bought and built our kits have said that we do not charge nearly enough. Their praise has been high for the content, instructions, accuracy, attention to detail, and overall quality of the kit and resulting boat. While kits are not exactly flying out the door in mass quantities and we are not getting rich, we are not complaining. We stand by our custom products and personalized service, and we feel that we have a special family of PT11 and PT Skiff owners, who have expressed great pleasure in both building and using their boats.

Not all feedback is praise….

…given the fact that we have forgotten to pack a part on occasion. This featured comment, in all it’s sarcastic humor, is a prime example…

“I found a small glitch in your packing. Nothing major: the installation of the dagger board cover calls for two washers (under the dogs, I think). Without them the dogs are too low with the gasket in place…. Through an outrageous and abject failure in your quality control, none were included. 😉
I know I can source nylon washers locally, even though that will put me far over budget. I thought I’d touch base and ask about specs: is there anything special other than serving as a spacer and friction control for these washers? Are any of the dimensions particularly important? Are you going to spank Russell? ” J.W. June 2014.

On the flip side, builders take heed..

“man’s best friend” has been known to find kit parts to be yummy chew toys. Keeping parts in your crate with the lid on until needed keeps out both excess dust and curious ‘Fido’. I know it is nice to have company in the shop but there are lots of bite sized bits in our kits. We use a detailed packing list when filling the crates and if we checked it off, we put it in. (granted, sleep deprivation can interfere from time to time..) In most cases, we will replace lost pieces free of charge so do let us know if it just cannot be found..(along with a photo of your orderly shop space!…just kidding… 😉 Seriously though, there are a lot of small parts in our kits that need to be kept together in a safe container and we know of at least one 5 axis shaped inner stem that was definitely lost to the shop dog.

June 17, 2014 by admin in ALL, instructional, kit options, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting-PT 11 updates, Nesting-PT11 Construction

PT11 2014 and updates

We recently finished our sixth (yes, sixth) PT 11 prototype. This was to incorporate a few design changes and re-write much of the manual in an effort to make the boat easier to build. Building this many boats can lead to some labor saving ideas and we felt that we needed to do our best to make this, “kind-of-high-tech” boat as easy to build as possible.

In the last related blog post we detailed some of the changes we have made to the boat. Everything worked well, the new manual is done, and kit parts are stacked to the ceiling and ready to fly out the door.

Relevant details even if you already have a PT11;
We have a few new details to share. Most are in the new manual but could be useful for people that already have PT 11’s.
The back seat had two issues: One is that the seat needed a way to be held against the tank wall when nesting the boat. For some reason we never realized that if we trimmed 1/4” off of the aft edge of the seat (it’s now 7” wide), it could wedge between the cleat and the shock chord knot as shown below. It’s secure enough not to fall over when nesting the boat and that’s all it needs.

The other issue is that the back seat could slide forward, (even with the bunji cord) come off the cleats, and drop you on your butt.
The fix is pretty simple. We trimmed a bit from the outboard edges of the seat with a sanding block (to move the seat aft) and we block sanded the forward corners of the seat as shown, all so that there was enough cleat showing to drill holes in. We then drilled 1/4” holes to a depth of 3/8” for the 5/8” long hardwood dowels to glue into.
This works well, it’s an easy fix, and if you already have a boat, we can send the dowels to you along with the handy-dandy tether washer we shown below.

We have always kept our dagger-board trunk cap in the forward compartment, but it can be hard to find in there if it’s full of stuff. It’s easy to glue a tether into a hole drilled in the cap, but where to tie the tether? To the washer under the forward turn dog, that’s where.
It’s a special washer made for us by a neighbor who laser cuts other parts for us as well. This is a thin Delrin(TM) part, but we had a very hard time breaking one.
Replace the round washer with this one and rotate the washer aft for fishing the tether through the hole.

Holding the dagger-board down has always been done with a rope loop that can hook over the aft turn dog, but having the loop fairly snug (as shown below) keeps the board down all the way.

Having the board down fully will make the boat climb like a 12 meter when sailing upwind and it will also help you run aground. No, what I meant is that it will help if you run aground.

We hit a rock very hard and not only did it nearly throw us out of the boat, but the sharp trailing edge of the board hit the aft end of the trunk (because the board was up about four inches) and did a small amount of damage to the trunk. The dagger-board was fine, but we now sail with the dagger-board down all the way or we unhook it and let it float up (about a third of the way).

RB PTW

April 1, 2014 by admin in ALL, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting-PT 11 updates, Nesting-PT11 Construction

PT11 for 2014

Work on a slightly re-designed PT 11 and a much improved building manual for the 11 is well underway.
We have long been planning to develop a smaller version of our nesting dinghy, but for several reasons, we decided to focus our efforts on making the PT 11 as good (and as easy to build) as we can make it.
One reason for this decision is that we are a small company with no employees (just ourselves) and even though the design process for the smaller boat was well underway, the thought of needing to stock all the parts necessary for a smaller boat seemed like too much.
Very few of the parts for the bigger boat would fit the smaller one. Even the rig and foils would need to be different, so the PT 9.5 has been put aside… For now.

The PT 11 has been a constant evolution. I have built so many prototypes and modified the manual so many times that I have lost count, but we love the boat and it has become quite a popular kit.

The new changes in the boat (and the manual) are mostly aimed at making the boat easier to build.
The biggest change is to make the gussets both thicker and slightly larger so that the builder can avoid the tricky job of applying the structural fiberglass over the gussets, besides making sense structurally.
The gussets will now be pre-beveled so that the upper gussets fit the hull without the builder having to do it and the curved gusset edges will be pre-rounded so that builders without router tables can avoid the risk of rounding their finger tips.
We wanted to make the two halves of the boat key together more snugly when nested, so the transom inwale is now wider and has a reinforced notch cut into it that the stem fits into when nested.
That, along with the larger gussets will mean that the forward half will just fit into the aft half, and once it’s there it won’t be able to move.
We will have the new boat cut in half soon to check our tolerances and then machine new gussets and inwales for future kit orders.

In the manual we are changing many parts of the process, mostly just to clarify parts of the process with more photos and better text, but some parts, such as the process of fiberglass taping the chines has been changed to a much better method, one we have used on the last couple of prototypes.
We have also been working on a video of some of the more challenging parts of the process. This video will (eventually) include filleting, chine taping, glassing, gloss coating, and painting.

PTW

March 25, 2014 by admin in ALL, Events, international, special offers

Proa “CHEERS” Posters Special

Multihull enthusiasts may know that designer Dick Newick passed away last year. Among his things were a stack of posters of his amazing, and historically significant, proa, “Cheers”, as painted by artist Bruce Alderson. One of these posters has graced our walls for many years and we are pleased to be able to offer them at a special price. Please read more about “Project Cheers” HERE.

Initially, we have set the price for the USA as postage is easily assessed.

For Europe, we would prefer to send several posters to a distributor. Individual postage from here to Europe, runs at $24 for the cheapest method. We hope that by having a distributor in France, postage will be far less.

Interested persons from outside of the USA should contact me to get on the list. Anyone interested in buying several for resale should contact me. QUANTITIES AT THIS PRICE ARE LIMITED.

Please note that a portion of the proceeds for these posters will go to Mr. Newick’s widow. In addition, there are a limited number of posters signed and numbered (253-294/400) by painter, Bruce Alderson. We are also in the process of re-publishing the book, PROJECT CHEERS. Please see our webpage for details.

‘cheers!’ PTW

March 25, 2014 by admin in ALL, Events, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting Dinghy Activities, Nesting-PT 11 updates

PT 11 on display in Seattle

As of Monday, April 7 th, our PT 11 nesting dinghy will be on display at Fisheries Supply in Seattle. This is something we have talked about doing for a long time and we are pleased it is happening this year. Fisheries Supply is one of our very favorite resources.

On display is our PT 11 that we have used a lot for 3 seasons now, around Port Townsend and north into Desolation Sound, BC. We have done a lot of exploring in this boat, some of which is featured in our videos. The interior finish is still the original WEST SYSTEM EPOXY(R) clear finish using 207 Special Clear Hardener(R) done in 2011. It is due a coat of varnish but I think you will be impressed at how little the scratches show even after all the sand and shoes. So if you are in the area, please stop by FISHERIES SUPPLY and check the boat out! Let us know you stopped by. THANK YOU!

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