PDRacer - Oz Mk2 Version plans released. Comments, Questions etc.

Boatmik · #1 31st Jul 2006, 04:59 PM

Hi all,

Everyone who asked to be involved in the beta program for the plans would have received a preliminary email - get back to me if you haven't.

I am really happy with the way the plans have turned out - they are amongst the best plans that you will ever see in terms of detail. And a lot of the credit has to go to Midge and his digital camera. Around 60 pages of step by step instructions, detail drawings and photos.

It is just a warning that the file size is about 3Mb - a 25 minute download for those on dial up.

Not a problem for those on broadband

Not a problem for those with webmail accounts (hotmail, yahoo mail etc) as they can choose when to download.

But might cause some strife for some using dial up and using the email on their own computers. Check your email accounts for the email I just sent!!!

I will be sending out the plans proper tonight.

If you have any comments about the plans or the boat building or materials or just bits you can't make sense of
(or better ways of doing things)
then whack them in this thread. Midge and I will be checking it regularly.

Best Regards to All

Michael

Boatmik · #2 1st Aug 2006, 03:48 AM

The plans do have lots of pages (just under 60) but you can just print off the ones you need.

MIK

Bob Alston · #3 1st Aug 2006, 07:41 AM

Hi MIK,
got the plans to the MkII PDR. Now, when I finish the Goose, I have two more boats to build. A Mk.II, and the Goose you designed, with the lighter hull.

Have a GOOD day and have some fun with it.

MichaelB · #4 1st Aug 2006, 10:24 AM

Thanks MIK, your plans package looks great. I was hoping for two or three drawings, and instead I have a small book to pore over.

You've made huge steps towards "professionalism" (in the best sense) for the PDRacer.

jmk89 · #5 1st Aug 2006, 10:34 AM

Mik

I have printed off the booklet and started reading it on the ferrry on the way to work this morning.

I think it has come together very well and it is very clear at most points. The good thing is that I think that it makes the process (and the reasons why certain steps are done and why they are done in the order that you suggest) understandable and encourages me to think that maybe I should buid a PDRacer to get on top of the techniques before moving on to other projects.

May I suggest that when one of the guinea pigs makes the boat in MK2 form they supply you with photos so that yo can replace those where the MK 1 was not done in the same way or sequence. I volunteer to do this if:
1.. I get to the project soon (which means getting some others finished before SWMBO finds out that there is a new project)
2.. I find where my son has hidden the digital camera

Also, I have a few minor suggestions where I think some parts could be expressed more clearly - I will mark them up and either snail the thing to you or scan and e-mail them. If I can get the time to do the build soon, I will hold off until I finish so that my comments can be those of someone who has actually used the plans and the instructions.

Cheers

Jeremy

Bob Alston · #6 1st Aug 2006, 02:41 PM

You were almost right, MIK, at the connection rate I had, it took 38 minutes to download.

Have a GOOD day and have some fun with it.

Bob

Boatmik · #7 1st Aug 2006, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmk89

Mik

May I suggest that when one of the guinea pigs makes the boat in MK2 form they supply you with photos so that yo can replace those where the MK 1 was not done in the same way or sequence. I volunteer to do this if:
1.. I get to the project soon (which means getting some others finished before SWMBO finds out that there is a new project)
2.. I find where my son has hidden the digital camera

Also, I have a few minor suggestions where I think some parts could be expressed more clearly - I will mark them up and either snail the thing to you or scan and e-mail them. If I can get the time to do the build soon, I will hold off until I finish so that my comments can be those of someone who has actually used the plans and the instructions.

Cheers

Jeremy

Howdy Jeremy,

It would be absolutely fabulous if all the above would happen. Midge and I got to know each other because he did much the same for my Goat Island Skiff Plans - I still have the copy he left me with all the red pen markings. He also left me with a number of quite major improvements to the plans and the boat.

I can still make Jo, Midge's wife wince when I mention that I first met both of them at a cafe in Sydney and the first thing Midge did was pull out the plans with all the red marks on (it seemed) every page and whacked it down on the table!!! Subtle!

Writing plan sets is such a huge undertaking that it is easy to get immersed and become unable to see the wood for the trees.

So it's easy for mistakes and narrow thinking to turn up under the pressure of getting to the end.

So let me have it!!!!

Corrections welcome, tidying up of unclearness welcome - both will be acted on.

I don't promise that I will change the plan procedures in the light of every suggestion - but I will look at everything and see if there is enough of an advantage in it to incorporate it. I have learned a lot over the years in this way even if not everything has made it into publication.

Best Regards to All
Michael Storer

knucklehead · #8 1st Aug 2006, 10:34 PM

Mik I have just recieved my plans.

They are far more detailed than I expected. Are you sure that all these flash plans don't contavene the puddle duck ethos or something?

Mik I know you offered them free but I would still like to pay something for the plans. They have obviously taken a lot of time to do. The $20 you are asking for is never going to cover the time and effort that has gone in to it but it is something.

Cliff Rogers · #9 1st Aug 2006, 11:31 PM

G'day.

They are great but where do I learn all the boat-part terms IE chines & carlins & partners & headlogs & bulkheads?

Is there boat-part glossary with pictures on the net somewhere?

I didn't read them closely but noted a couple of mistakes along the way.

Page 20 2nd para
The corner at between the bottom and stern transom should be kept as a sharp corner if
not glass taping.
Page 47 4th para
In the pastI have always used epoxy for gluing

bitingmidge · #10 2nd Aug 2006, 08:17 AM

Cliff,

Part of our little project is to produce a fair dinkum volume that will be useful and entertaining to all. I'm hoping shortly to have that sort of definition bit done, and ultimately interspersed in the text as well or at least on our PDR website which will one day get finished if I apply my self harder.

In the meantime, I'd appreciate it if you alert me to anything else you find that smacks of jargon. It's important for a number of reasons (the least of them being the learning process for newcomers) that the correct terminoligy is used, but it's also pretty important that no one is intimidated!

Knucklehead, you are absolutely correct as far as the time is concerned, Mik says hundreds of hours, but he'd spent that before he left my place in April. Now it's several hundred's of hours I reckon!

I am probably being a bit presumptuous, but he won't tell you how much he'd appreciate a donation!

Better still, you could sell a few to your mates, on Mik's behalf and spread the word about how uncool it would be to copy them without paying for them in future!

As far as the Puddleduck Ethos goes, there are lots of people who'd love to be out there doing it, but haven't got a clue. Not a clue at all!

Our original idea was that this will give them the opportunity to build a boat that is going to be "up there" in performance without requiring any great skill as a builder, or any previous knowledge or experience. That's why we got carried away with the whole concept.

If anyone thinks they can improve on bits and pieces, that's encouraged, or if they want to build an entirely different hull (hopefully within the class rules) then they can take the bits from the plans that they don't know how to build and go from there.

Believe it or not, we were more concerned that asking money for the plans was against that ethos. Note my contribution has been very little, while this has cut seriously into Mik's income earning time, so I have nothing to lose in that statement!

I hope I haven't cut across anything you were going to say Mik!

We're looking forward to lots of build pics and questions guys, go off and earn the cost of the plans now!

Cheers,

P

meerkat · #11 2nd Aug 2006, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

G'day.

They are great but where do I learn all the boat-part terms IE chines & carlins & partners & headlogs & bulkheads?

Is there boat-part glossary with pictures on the net somewhere?

Hi Cliff,

I have found answers.com a good place to start with, I even boned up about whipping there :eek: ... Settle guys the stuff to do with finishing off the ends of ropes and not the after hours stuff

.

Andrew

bitingmidge · #12 2nd Aug 2006, 09:16 AM

Oh!

May I also add my congratulations to Mik, as usual the plans are a credit to him, and really show the industry as a whole, that "plans ain't plans!"

Cheers,

P

MichaelB · #13 2nd Aug 2006, 01:16 PM

"cleat" is a simple word that confused me for a bit. I knew it as a thing with horns around which ropes are wound to secure them, but know I know it's also a short piece of timber attached to something so that it can be attached to something else.

Learn something every day. Sometimes two.

Boatmik · #14 2nd Aug 2006, 01:42 PM

Hahaha

Bless your cotton socks Michael!

I will actually take up Cliff's suggestion to go through the plans again and make sure the jargonny bits are labelled in the drawings a bit better. Eventually I might do a drawing showing those bits - if I can work out a neat way of showing them all.

Perhaps cleat just means something that "holds" something else?

Cleats are on shoes too.

MIK

MichaelB · #15 2nd Aug 2006, 01:56 PM

Maybe you just need to expand the definition a bit, to include a few more different kinds of cleats: those that hold things together, the one at the back that you steer with, and the big one up top that flaps if you don't pull the main cleat on hard enough.

I once sailed with a skipper whose boat was full of "thingies". We didn't win many races...