Thread: PDRacer Hungary; Egyszerű vitorláshajó építése Magyarországon

Originally Posted by Gyula

Great choise for the name, haha
Just for those non eastern Europeans, the Trabi is among cars lake a PD among sailboats. Small, cheap, bit ugly, but very good for the purpose, and a great love for most of the owners.

He's defending the Trabi

First time I've ever seen it happen

Richard

yes, I watch too many British car shows

The most important fact about Trabi that it is partly made of wood.

He's defending the Trabi

Not me, they......
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lZoFvo4c3U"]YouTube - Trabi show JÃ#vka 2007[/ame]

sorry for off.....

One Really, Really exciting thing is that Csaba has almost finished translating the PDRacer plans into Hungarian!

He will sell them as my agent. He finished the Eureka plans a few months ago.

I did not realise Hungarian was quite so widespread with many speakers (15 million) and readers well ditstributed outside the borders of Hungary, i guess partially because of history.

Here is the AustroHungarian Empire in 1867



MIK

By the way, fantastic name for the boat!

At least the blue smoke will be less in the PDR!

Does this mean there needs to be a picture of WasserTRABI on a trailer behind a Trabi?

From the internet (apologising in advance for any incorrect information).

Since it could take years (usual waiting time 15 years) for a Trabant to be delivered from the time it was ordered, people who finally got one were very careful with it and usually became skillful in maintaining and repairing it. The lifespan of an average Trabant was 28 years.

Used Trabants would often fetch a higher price than new ones, as the former were available immediately, while the latter had the aforementioned waiting period of mostly at least ten years. The street neighbouring the factory where lucky owners collected their new cars was called die Strasse der Sieger (Avenue of Winners) signifying that a delivery of new Trabi was a small victory over the Communist regime

The car took 21 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) and the top speed was 112 km/h (70 mph). There were two main problems with the engine: the smoky exhaust and the pollution it produced—nine times the amount of hydrocarbons and five times the carbon monoxides of the average European car of 2007. The fuel consumption was a modest 7 L/100 km (40 mpg-imp; 34 mpg-US)

The Trabant was a relatively advanced car when it was launched in 1958; with front wheel drive, a unitary construction, composite bodywork and independent suspension all around.

In 1997, the Trabant was celebrated for passing the "Elchtest" ("moose test"), a 60 km/h (37 mph) swerve manoeuvre slalom, without toppling over like the Mercedes-Benz A-Class infamously did. A newspaper from Thuringia had a headline saying "Come and get us, moose! Trabi passes A-Class killer test"

This was the Mercedes


This was the Trabi (you can tell it is a specially prepared race version by the driver's helmet)

MIK

Of course the PDR handled it fine

Haha, thanks.

My first car was a Trabi and it was very handy, easy-to-repair and reliable. Once I made a complete regeneration of the engine in my backyard.

The Hungarian translation of PD Racer plan is ready - I am working on Handy Punt right now. (Michael, I sent you a link where you can download the plan, just to have a look)

Cheers
Csaba

The plans look great Csaba.

I was a bit worried about how the pics and diagrams would work out, but they are really quite good.

The punt is a good choice for the next translation. I think a lot of people will like a small motorboat.

MIK

Well done Blokes !

Dear Boatbuilders,
The time is coming - my PD (hull number 338) Racer is almost ready. After I had coated the inside of front buoyancy tank I cut out the slot for mast and the inspection port.

Attachment 112210

Attachment 112211

I made a dry try before assembly - it was useful because I had to modify the slot a bit.

Attachment 112208

Attachment 112209

Later on I cut the slot for the centerboard as well, but it did not want to fit in. I sanded the centerboard a bit but it did not fit until I sanded the inside of center-case. Now it is still a bit tight - I am afraid if I give another coat it will stuck in again, and I don't really want to sand too much either from centerboard nor from the case.

If I solve this the next is assembly of rig, rudder, painting the exterior - then lunching day.

By the way I have a question. I have a paste that I bought to color the epoxy - the guy in the shop recommended it for the type of epoxy that I am using. What do you think about it. If I coat the exterior with colored epoxy - will it give enough protection? Or should I varnish it as well?

Thanks
Bests
Csaba

Hello Csaba

Congraulations on your soon-to-be-completed PDR.

That was smart to do a dry test fit as you can fix any problems while deck is not yet glued on.

Regarding you question. As far as I know the epoxy doesn't have UV protection so you really need to paint and/or varnish the boat with paint or varnish that has UV filters.

On my boat I coated everything with epoxy three times (as per Mik's recomendations) and then I painted the outer hull and decks with base paint and then with 2 pot paint (2 coats).
Inside the boat I just varnished everything (3 coats).

So make sure that varnish has UV filter (as some don't have it).

In this part of the world Hempel is a good option (not too expensive) www.hempel.hu ;
Iridia marine paint and varnish (normally 2 pot, moore expensive) and others.

Greetings and all the best with your finishing work.

Szia (Hi) Csaba

I used TRINAT primer on the outside, and SADOLIN YACHT warnish on the inside, I think these are available in Hungary too...

Koala's reply is perfect.

Adding colour to epoxy has only a limited effect as it can't protect the surface of the epoxy very well. It can protect the deeper layers quite well.

So best to paint or use a varnish with UV filters (spar varnish). Hempel or the Sadolin Yacht varnish sound like good products for exposure to sunlight.

Thankyou for the brand names too! One day I will do a thread with summaries of material brands and shops for each country. That would be a great resource. Just need to dig it out of the different threads.

Best wishes
MIK

MIK

As others have stated, there are not many epoxy coatings that are UV stable in their own right. Some have additives that increase UV resistance but generally, epoxy will always need a UV resistant topcoat. The problem with using an oil-based varnish over epoxy is that the epoxy surface needs to be extremely carefully prepared with wetNdry paper or stainless steel wool. It has to be matted out thoroughly or the varnish will quickly peel off the epoxy substrate. A marine polyurethane coating is preferable to something like a tung-oil based spar varnish when overcoating epoxy.

In relatively recent times, some epoxy/polyurethane compatible products have become available and come to the market as epoxy base coats and polyurethane topcoats that are chemically compatible and achieve a significant degree of bonding. These are ideal for wooden boats. There are even some single pack water based epoxy coatings (no mixing!) now that are extremely tough and easy to apply and have minimal fumes. Ideal if you're building in your lounge room! One such "combined" product in Australia is Aquacote, but your local coatings specialist in your country might also have a similar product? These types of products really do take all the guesswork out of deciding how to finish our boats.