PT Watercraft Blog – Page 21 – Updates from Port Townsend Watercraft — community news, builder highlights, construction tips, product updates, and more

July 12, 2012 by admin in ALL, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting Dinghy Activities

Trip to Barclay Sound

I hit ‘publish’ on this post before it was finished..oops…this is the complete one with all the intended photos…

The 9 days leading up to Independence Day were our days of independence away from the phones, computer and, for the most part, people. Just to share it with you, I am posting some pictures that kind of highlight the trip, which was mostly wet with rain but no less beautiful.

Clearance in Victoria is often done over the phone. I thought this was funny after years of making clearances in the Caribbean and generally around the world where it is much more of an ordeal. I love Canada.. We anchored in Clo Oose Bay and hiked to the dock at Nit Nat, where there was crab, salmon and cold beer! The trail was incredible. Mostly boardwalk but occasionally, as here, the roots of this tree create the steps up the hill.

Sailing into Barclay Sound. I counted 11 shades of mountains that day. I tried to paint it later.

In a little island group, I got to practice my dinghy sailing. I am new to solo-ing, in fact new to dinghy sailing, and now I am hooked.We had 2 opportunities without rain to get pictures of the PT 11 really sailing. My lens only goes up to 55mm so I missed a lot of good shots. Shopping now for a tele for the camera. Still, Russell got the little pony galloping wherever there was wind.

Part of the trip was to get video and pictures of the new PT11 with the new rig. Evening in the Chatham Group provided one nice opportunity before crossing the straits back to PT.

Arriving at Fort Worden on July 4th, friends showed up and everyone got to take the PT 11 for a sail… until the wind died…. 2 and 4 legged ‘salty dogs’ aboard…

The evening sky was so pretty and the moon rise was spectacular. Could not capture it well since the boat was moving…

Finishing the trip with fireworks…. 🙂 PTW

June 20, 2012 by admin in ALL, kit options, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting-PT11 Construction

Back seat attachment point

Especially for builders of the PT Eleven, please see this post on the builder’s blog. It pertains to the attachment point for the cedar back seat and also to the leather pads. Current versions of the builder’s manual does not have this and it should be noted. Cheers, 🙂 PTW

June 11, 2012 by admin in ALL, kit options, Nesting Dinghy

A back seat for the PT Eleven

The Cedar Back Seat option is as simple as it gets. It is both tethered to the boat and held in place by the same bungee cord. The builder has to sand and oil or varnish the seat and install the carbon, glue-on eye-strap and bungee. The cleats for the seat to rest on are part of the basic PT11 kit.

June 6, 2012 by admin in kit options

PT 11 Tiller and Hiking stick

Our tiller and hiking stick stock is made of Sapele. The tiller is tapered on 3 sides, shaped at both ends and drilled. The hiking stick has rounded ends, chamfered edges and drilled for attachment.

The builder finishes the tiller (on the right) by rounding the edges, hand sanding and oiling.The length of the hiking stick is just right to fit in the corner of the transom of the PT Eleven, for hands free steering when needed. It also folds and stows well. Tapering the tiller requires a router jig and so we offer this kit with most of the job done for you. We also offer untapered, 1″ tiller stock, for the builder’s who wish to shape their own. See the OPTIONS PAGE or the ORDER FORM on our website for prices.

May 24, 2012 by admin in kit options, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting-PT 11 updates, Nesting-PT11 Construction

PT Eleven Foil Kits

FOILS (DAGGER BOARD AND RUDDER) KIT
Foils are like wings that operate underwater. As with sails, the shape of the foils directly affects performance. The PT 11 sails amazingly well against the wind, mostly due to good foils.
Dinghy foils are usually either very expensive or they are crude and inefficient. The PT 11 foils are neither, but like the boat itself there are multiple glass & epoxy steps to make them long lasting. One could just epoxy coat them and go sailing, but from our perspective that would be a waste of very high quality plywood and a lot of CNC machine time.
The kick-up rudder design is something we are proud of. The case is fun to build, works very well, and folds for stowing.
Building the case requires multiple epoxy steps and can be done while finishing the foils.

Our foils kit contents are shown in this picture, along with the optional tiller and hiking stick. The foils are a machined NACA .012 section.

A detail of the steering hardware package; Note the scribe marks on the rudder case walls for aligning the pintels.

The rudder and dagger-board are machined in halves from high grade Okoume plywood.

The halves are then glued together and vacuum bagged in our shop before shipping to the builder.This picture shows the finished foils.

The Rudder folds for easy storage. See the OPTIONS PAGE on our website for prices.

May 13, 2012 by admin in ALL, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting Dinghy Activities, Nesting-PT 11 updates, Nesting-PT11 Construction

A row in the PT Eleven nesting dinghy

Thank you Randy, for surprising us with this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYMEamd3ME8

Randy’s channel also features the Boatschool cutting the PT 11 in half. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7xLYkaX4LA&feature=relmfu

Cheers! PTW

May 4, 2012 by admin in ALL, Nesting Dinghy, Nesting Dinghy Activities, PT Skiff Activities, PT Skiff Updates

Last Call AUSTRALIA!!

A shipment is headed for Australia and there is still time to get your kit onboard. Shared shipping cost is a benefit to all. The gentleman ordering is offering a super fair deal to share shipping costs, clear the shipment into Adelaide and hold the kit for fowarding or pick up. You can even work with him to pay in AU$..! He has really done the homework and as he really wants his kit, he is offering to do all the hassle for you. Please contact me right away if you want to get a PT Skiff KIT or PT 11 KIT to Australia as they need to be cut in the next week (May 7-11) to make the departure date. This kind of opportunity will not happen often. Cheers! 🙂 PTW

April 20, 2012 by admin in ALL, Nesting Dinghy Activities

Launchings at the NWSWB

Last week the NW School of Wooden Boat Building had a day of launching some of their recently finished boats. It was a casual gathering to which the PT Eleven nesting dinghy was invited. It was good for everyone to see the finished product since they are currently building one of our kits. Lots of people got to go for a row and chat about boats.

March 5, 2012 by admin in ALL, Nesting-PT 11 updates, Nesting-PT11 Construction

PT11 at NW School of Wooden Boat Building

We are please to report that the NW School of Wooden Boat Building is building a PT Eleven nesting dinghy as part of their contemporary boat building program. It is being built in their newly built, on campus facility, the Jeff Hammond building, especially designed to serve as a workshop for larger projects. The boat school students are working the Sliver project; a 62foot, Bob Perry designed super sleek, day sailor. Take note that the first photo is taken with an extremely wide angle lens. The boat in the background really is 62ft long.
The PT Eleven is being built along side the Sliver project. When completed, it will be for sale. If anyone is interested in purchasing a completed PT Eleven, they should contact Bruce Blatchley at the school. (see above NWSWB link) Russell says they are doing a really clean job so far.

March 2, 2012 by admin in ALL, Nesting Dinghy Activities, Nesting-PT 11 updates, PT Skiff Updates

Back to work

Hello All,.. I am back at work after 3 weeks out of the country. I was visiting family and snowed in up in the black mountains of southern France… far from boats…but I also spent time investigating the logistics of making our kits easily available to our European followers. I am a little bit closer to a viable solution. With our limited budget, it all takes real figuring and coordination. One thing that is clear, is that in order to keep shipping costs low, being able to ship at least 2 PT Skiff kits or 5 PT Eleven kits at once reduces the cost for each buyer dramatically. Ocean freight is calculated with a minimum volume so shipping one kit or 5 is nearly the same price. Import duties and clearance fees are being checked into in France and should provide a basic idea for most of Europe. There have been discussions about having kits cut in Europe but we find this to be more complex. It simply is not possible at this stage to have someone in Europe make all of the parts. Besides the fact that our kits have parts cut from 5 different thickness of plywood, there are lumber, carbon, fiberglass, and stainless steel specialty parts. We will avoid any kind of fractured production ideas. Our quality expectation is very high and it will be a good while before we have all the glitches worked out so that someone else could reproduce our kits to our standards.

On another note, we will have a PT Eleven on display at the NW Maritime center symposium happening here in Port Townsend on March 16, 17, & 18th. This cruising theme event has a limited number of tickets available so if you think you would like to attend, follow this link and get more information. The presenters scheduled promise to make this a very interesting weekend. We are nearing completion of the current PT Eleven nesting dinghy, which has been a bit on the back burner. Russell has had other projects demanding his attention. Symposium participants will be able to take it out for a row at various times over the weekend.

We have lots of posts in preparation so we hope you will stay tuned. 🙂

About

Quick Links

Connect

Explore

By Category

By Date